A Weapon's Telepathy
by Threnna
Summary: Many things never go as hoped. First that fight, then that mission, then everything else. Her life has turned into a kaleidoscope of Christmas presents, fights, confusion, snow, demons, love, power, Yusuke's sarcasm and telepathy. Whole YYH gang, HieixOC
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** A weapon's telepathy

**Proclaimers: ** Yu Yu Hakusho and all it's characters belong to Yoshihiro Togashi; only my imagination belongs to me :3

This story is the result of a request, so hope you all enjoy.

* * *

Who would have thought, or in the least expected, my Christmas would begin like this?

And what idiot would willingly engage in a stare down with such fierce eyes?

What can my simple, brown eyes put up against those opposite me?

But there is no use questioning that now; no matter what answer I may find, I still find myself unable to escape those eyes.

How did I end up in this situation? It's like the world is becoming blurry. I feel his presence inside my head. I don't like it. I don't. I don't want this to happen. I _won't _let it happen.

* * *

Putting in a last effort I dashed down the end of the road, urged on by several calls further down:

"C'mon, Fai! Hurry up!"

"It's gonna leave! Hurry!"

No need to tell me. I climbed the unnecessarily high fence, kick off from the top and jumped across half the road from it. ThenI swung past the front of the buss -like I would have been able to stop it had it indeed decided to drive off- and threw myself into that big box on wheels.

"Safe!" I cheered all out of breath, accompanied by slightly less than a dozen other voices.

Paying for the ticket required, I could finally flop down in a free seat and allow myself to catch my breath.

"I think that's a record in last-minuting," Liru grinned widely. She leaned on the seat back in front of me, hugging it for support.

"What are you talking about? I always make sure to have lots of time for everything." Somehow this made everyone laugh. And I was even being serious: One or two seconds are _plenty_ of time.

I glared lightly at them, sticking out my bottom lip. "What?" I complained. "I always end up as the laughing stock."

Liru laughed even harder.  
"Don't worry." Maka shuffled my hair with a wide grin. "We're used to your weirdness."

"Why, thank you," I pouted dryly.

* * *

The rest of the ten minutes bus ride went by just as fast as usual. –unpleasantly fast. And I was not the only one to groan when we reached our destination.

"Why? Why I ask you. Who was the idiot to come up with this stupid thing?" Aki slid halfway to her knees, just barely able to keep standing.

"Whoever it was, I'll kill him. I swear," Liru growled, balling up her fists.

"Whoever it was, he or she is long gone and dead and buried and eaten by worms by now. Grow up, get over it." Sakura walked past us as the model she was.

"Speaking like you love the frickin' building," Liru muttered.

And I suppose we were a heart beat away from another fight, which was the reason to whyAki, Ichigo,Haru and Maka suddenly jumped forth and had to hold her down. And despite their numbers, they were having a hard time.

"I understand that this is an important battle of life and death, pride and whatnot, which must not be missed. But I would prefer not to get yelled at by the teachers for being late again," I said, feeling a little despised by myself. Sakura's eyes glinted and she sent me a winking smile. I laughed a little.

"Normally I'd say "there goes the geek", but I guess you're right; we've been late a little bit too often lately. I guess we should hurry it up for a change," Aki sighed, letting go of Liru.

Thus with joined forces we entered through the emotionally_dark_ gate leading into our school. As we quickly made our way to the main entrance I came to glance to the right, which made me stop without noticing.  
On the other side of the schoolyard, a boy stood leaning against the wall. He didn't appear to belong to this school; at least he was not wearing our uniform. Though that was not what had made me stop. There was-  
"Fai!"  
No, maybe not. With a last glance in his direction I slipped past the door and it slid close behind me.

* * *

He was still there when school ended. Poking Miku next to me, I soon made all 6 aware of the strange guy.

"He's been standing there since morning," I whispered; as if I was afraid he could hear me from that far.

"I didn't see him," Aki squinted her eyes slightly, trying to get a better look at him.

"You were too busy getting through the door," I replied dryly.

"Hey… you need any help?" True to her all too carefree nature, Liru was already halfway across the school yard. With a bite of the lip I ran after her.

"You were here this morning too," I said slowly as I caught up to them. "Are you waiting for someone, or?"

He looked up. Until now his eyes had been hid underneath the shade of his cap, but with the obstacle out of the way brown eyes meeting ours. His black hair, mostly hid underneath the blue cap, was short and black. Then he grinned at us.

"Thanks ladies, but I'm fine."

Slightly taken a back at the sudden change, we looked at each other.

"Okay," Liru said slowly. "Sorry to bother you," she smiled sweetly and took a few steps backwards.

Feeling a little awkward under the strange boy's gaze we retreated to the others, not really having anything to report back. Discussing with low voices what he could have been doing here, and how this school wasn't the most targeted of places to hang out, we reached the school gates. I threw a short glance back in the schools buildings direction, but he was no longer there. Pulling one hand through my hair in wonder I decided to leave it. Though it really had not been a hallucination; his cap had had a thin layer of snow. But when had it snowed?

"Strange guy," Liru commented with a shrug. "He was wearing a cap at this time of year."

"I suppose people can dress in whatever they like," Sakura shrugged.

"Wonder if he has a girlfriend," Haru broke in.

"Do you ever think about anything else?" Sakura sent her a dry look.

"Yes I do, but he was kinda cute, y'know?"

We laughed.

"I think he was!"

"Well, I'll agree he didn't look _bad_, but I wouldn't go to the point of saying he was _cute_."

"I think he was!" Haru repeated insistently.

"Okay then, fine. Don't kill us, you girl," Liru raised her hands to show her surrender.

"While we're on the subject of cute, are you guys going to the corner today?" Aki broke in to prevent a larger discussion on the matter of being female.

"The corner? Nah… I'm not sure. Unless Haru wants to see her beloved again."

"Yeah, you haven't seen him since the day before yesterday, have you?"

"How about asking him out soon? After all, he's been working there almost a whole year now."

"Or have you perhaps taken a better liking to that guy with the cap?" Sakura asked. Haru glared at her.

"Then ask him out," Sakura replied to the glare.

"I know, I know! It's only a matter of time, I'll ask him out."

"Yeah, right. You rather prefer to watch the hotness, don't you?" Maka laughed.

"Well… that _is_ one of my hobbies." Haru sighed. "You're so lucky Fai, you live so close to him."

"I live close to the restaurant, not him," I corrected her.

"Yeah, but he's working there, so it counts for the same."

"Sure, sure." I shook my head hopelessly at her.

"And besides," my love struck friend continued. "You can't say you don't like him; you became a regular customer right after he started working there!" She pointed an accusing finger at me.

"Excuse me, but I've been their regular customer for the past five years I've been living here," I countered, unable to stop the slight twitch of my eyebrow.

"But since I was not there yesterday, I'd say we should go in and get some food," I added, quickly changing the subject. Haru glared at me. "You just want an excuse to see him," she muttered to herself, just loud enough for me to hear it and I had a distinct feeling that was intentionally.

"Riiight," I mumbled, pushing the door open and entered first of the group.

We had not taken many steps into the peaceful restaurant before the oh-so famous waiter discovered us. And with a smile he headed in our direction. I could with safety claim he and I were on pretty good terms, bordering friendship, however:

"Good evening."

He still greeted us as politely as always.

"It's nice to see you all again." That gorgeous smile of his almost blinded us. "You didn't come yesterday, did something happen?" He turned at me looking more worried than a waiter ought to.  
"I can't eat here _everyday._ I'd go broke –and fat beyond reason."

He laughed gently. "So I take it you would like the usual group table?" He eyed our big group, mentally counting us. Though he already knew how many we were. How many times we had visited this place however, I guess even he did not have a count of.

"I'm _telling you, he was looking at me!_" Haru exclaimed, waiving her hands about, for surely the 102nd time after the restaurant-visit three days before.

"And we hear you," Ichigo replied for the 103rd time.

"And have, loudly and clearly for three days," Sakura soothed her ears. Out of the corner of my eye I was sure I could see her rolling her eyes slightly, but with a small smile nonetheless. Their friendship was a mystery.

"What, you got a problem?" Haru growled.

"And now let's sit down and have a nice cup of tea," Maka broke inn. She had Haru miraculously pinned to herself with one hand and held her mouth clasped tight with the other.

"I'm more up for some hot chocolate with caramel," Ichigo said, thoughtfully tapping her temple with her index finger.

"Agreed," Liru beat one hand into the other. "I'd sat it's been a while since we treated ourselves to something sweet."

"True. And if I have to stay in this cold any longer, I'll freeze to death. I'm telling you," Haru growled and rubbed her arms fiercely in a small hope for some warmth.

"What cold? I don't feel any cold." Maka grinned widely from behind her (who she was still holding in a steel grip for the safety of all of us –or of Sakura). And it was not just Haru's eyes that stared dumbly at the girl with what had to be hot boiling water instead of blood running through her veins.

"Where did your nerve centre wander off to?" Liru muttered.

"Must have fallen off during birth, or something," Ichigo breathed hot on her fingers. And Maka was still grinning like an idiot.

"Get yourself a normal body!" Liru exclaimed slapping the back of the none-nerve-centre-with-boiling-water girls head. "It's the frickin' beginning of November! Anyone would be freezing to death outside at this time of the year. –at least with the temperature we've had lately." She said angrily while stuffing her jacket more tightly around herself. I shook my head in pity at the jacket which was ready to tear open in several places any minute.

"I say we go to Starbucks," I broke in. Not just for the sake of my freezing friends, but also Liru's jacket.

There were no one in objection to that proposal and we all marched off in the direction leading to hot coffee and hot chocolate and other hot things to melt our ice fingers.

"Though I don't really get what you're making such a fuzz about," Aki held the door open and the lot of us – Maka– let out a relieved sigh.

"I'm not cold at all." And she smiled. In return she received the same stare as Maka.

"Well you've stuffed yourself into hundreds of layers of clothing," Haru growled. She was not really angry, even if she had been growling for a while. The cold just did that to her.

"And you should learn to do so too. Then you wouldn't complain about the cold so much," Aki's smile remained on her lips. She ordered first and twelve minutes later everyone were drawing warmth from the hot cups of chocolate and coffee.

"Hey Sakura, what did you order?" Haru –obviously calmed down– leaned across the girls shoulder.

"What's _that_?" she burst out, staring at the greenish, transparent liquid. "Looks kind of…" Haru's face pulled into a lightly disgusted grimace. Sakura rolled her eyes. Or at least she could have. What she did however was to lift one eyebrow unimpressed, while the rest of her face stayed perfect as cut in stone.

"It's called 'tea'," she at last found it fitting to reply. "It's quite the normal phenomena here in Japan. Have you ever seen such a thing in your tragic, little life?"

Surely Haru would have ripped her head right off her neck at that exact moment. And she would surely have brought the Starbucks and that part of the city down in the go.

I found myself still snickering when looking at Sakura's –still- unimpressed, cocked brow as Haru was half an inch away from grabbing her by the ears. Luckily, Maka stepped in. And with help from Liru and Ichigo I hurried everyone out of the café.

With a wide smile on her face, ice cream in one hand and Haru in the other, Maka walked out, leader of the little herd.

I laughed slightly when recalling the earlier event of the day, causing white steam to escape my mouth. Blurring my vision a few seconds, it soon dissolved to open my eyes for the darkening sky.

I stopped. Stuffing my cold hands in my pockets I stood staring up at blue blending with black. It was that kind of totally black, that soon would be graced by millions on millions of white dots, telling tales about yet a cold day to follow around the corner. I couldn't help but smile at the endlessness of the wonders high above me. And to let out a small, almost relieved or satisfied sounding sigh. Somehow, to walk in this classical cold winter night soothed me.

With all the global heating going on, we were still not doomed enough for us to have tropical winters. But then again, maybe this slightly abnormally cold winter was the work of just that, the global warming and all that. Or maybe…  
It had also been a four days time since I first noticed that guy by the wall. And throughout these last days he had not failed to be there a single day.

The silent night heaven did not give away any answers for the endless questions lining up.

Perhaps, if I had not been such a dorky dreamer and thinker, then maybe I would not have been in the situation I am now.

Anyhow, in the depths of my lone philosophies of how the world would end and so on, I failed to discover a gang of four or five people coming closer. By the time they were right next to me, and I finally realized I was no longer alone; it would be long too late to escape my tragic fate and the stare-down later to occur.

"Hey there, kitten," a voice said behind me. I spun around, startled. Then smiled, and excused myself politely for my rude reaction.

"You need any help?" I asked as they were not saying anything. They looked at each other, exchanged small glances, smiled, grinned and exchanged whatnot of silent communication.

"Yea', I suppose we do. Could you help us out?"

I eyed them, trying to make up my mind about them. "What is it?" I said, an alarm bell going off in the back of my mind. Being outside in the night in this part of the neighbourhood, I knew that. -And especially not when alone. That's what the grown ups always kept saying, anyway. But what are the possibilities? It's not like _that_ many people get targeted. And one shouldn't go suspect each and everyone one meets on the streets. But even so, I told myself to be careful. Like one always do, and always should, still not really expecting anything to happen.

Which is why I wonder when I realized it was real. When did I realize it would really hurt? Perhaps the second time he hit me, that strongest one, the one appearing to be the leader. I think I stood up to protect myself. I'm sure I did. But it's strange how numb you become when standing in front of the real thing. Those things one only imagined before, protecting oneself without fear against bullies and those likes, where nothing but faint wish thinking when facing the real thing. All thoughts about the world and the philosophy so many teenagers engage themselves in had disappeared from my mind.

The small alley looked like any other one'd find in a movie: dark, filled with garbage and other filth. The kind of place one would not be surprised to stumble across a corps. Or at least that is what I remember it like. Perhaps it was not all that bad. Or maybe it was even worse.

All I know is that when I came to, there was no darkness or dirt surrounding me. Instead there were white sheets with matching white walls and furniture. And it was first when I came to I discovered I had lost consciousness.

"How are you feeling?"

I had to squint my eyes to make the person come into focus. Though half a minute later, I could open my eyes fully again and still see the nurse patting one hand at the bed cover to straighten it out a little.

"I'm fine," I said slowly. "I think." And then asked the cliché question: "What happened?"

"You were beat up pretty badly when you arrived here," she smiled at me. All her hair was hid in a small, white and cute hat. If she was not bald, that is. That thought made the corners of my mouth itch.

"It was the work of one of these delinquent gangs that's been making quite a commotion around here recently," she was still smiling. As expected of a well educated nurse. It didn't even look false or tired from being there probably the whole day. And not even the slightest hint of annoyance leaked into her voiced for being bothered so late at night with a new patient. Impressive.

"A young man brought you in," she explained further. "He is right outside, wondering how you are doing. Shall I let him in?" she waited smiling for my reply.

"What's his name?" I wondered, pondering who it could be. Maybe someone from my class? But if that was the case I couldn't think of any that would stay and wait in the hospital.

She was still smiling.

"He said his name was Kuwabara," she said. I sat a few moments simply looking at her and the door. I did not know any by that name. None the less, he had helped and maybe saved me. It would be rude to just tell him off.

"Sure, you can let him in," I shrugged. And as she opened the door I followed closely with curious eyes.

A guy, dressed in blue school uniform came in. –Though what caught my eye was his orange hair. From his face he didn't look like much more than a delinquent himself. But as they say, one shouldn't judge others by their appearances.

Therefore I chased all surprise and slight hesitation away and smiled as thankfully as possible.

"Thank you for saving me," I said. He looked a little taken aback by my welcome. Had it been a little bit over the edge? No, this way of thanking would only be natural and expected, would it not?

He blinked a little and smiled.

_Goofball_, I couldn't help but think. He scratched the back of his head then smiled. "I found you in an alley," he said.

"Though by then, all the bad guys were already unconscious." A boy with cap and brown eyes poked his head in, wearing a huge grin across his face. He entered the room, hands stuffed in his pockets. The orange haired one, _kuwabara_, relaxed his hands in the same fashion. Something about the new guy appeared strangely familiar to me.

"I must admit, your power was something else than what we first anticipated." And the biggest shock yet was cast upon me: the waiter from the corner restaurant was entering the room.

"How are you feeling?" he asked politely.

"What are you doing here?" I pointed my finger rudely at him in return. He chuckled lightly.

"And you!" I suddenly remembered, moving my trembling finger to the capped one. "You're the one appearing outside my school recently."

"Jack pot." His grin widened. If something like that was possible. "Now guess who we are," he came over to my bed and bent a little bit toward me, as if to properly show me he was grinning.

"Now now Yusuke, how could she possibly know," the nurse scolded. He eyed her thoughtfully, and with glinting eyes he said:

"That nurse outfit is quite something else. Planning to make it your usual wear instead of that kimono?" he snickered.

"Really, when will you grow up, Yusuke?" the nurse huffed.

"And you even already have Keiko," Kuwabara said. "How can you go looking at other girls?"

Yusuke grimaced. "Relax, I won't tell Yukina you've been looking Botan up."

As I watched their quarrel go on and develop to a full scale fight, I found it strangely ironic for all this to be happening in a hospital. And even though the two of them didn't actually _keep it down_, no one came to check on what was going on. When on it, what about my parents? I would have thought they'd be warned by now or something.

"You got quite a rough meeting with us, Fai. We did not plan for it to turn out this way. My apologies," the waiter broke into my chain of thoughts with a truly sorry look.

"But we will explain everything once we have returned," the nurse assured.

"Returned?" I glanced from one to the other of the four lunatics. "Returned where?"

The nurse's face cracked open with a wide, cheerful smile. "Why, to the spirit world of course," she said, like it was the most natural thing in the world. "We have to report to Koenma."

"Though he most likely already knows," Yusuke shrugged, glancing up from the two man brawl on the floor. "He's always watching people with that monitor. Seems to be the only hobby that little toddler has."

"We still have to bring Fai there," the nurse said. "A portal should be appearing any time now." She looked around. So did the three boys.

"Right," I said slowly. "This has gotta be some kind of odd dream," I muttered to myself.

"That's what I thought at first too," Yusuke grinned and linked his hands behind his head, one foot keeping the orange haired guy locked to the floor. "But it all soon proved to be very real, though," he added.

"Is that so," I muttered.

"Ah, finally!" the nurse –Botan, was it?– suddenly exclaimed. The same second a shimmering hole appeared in the middle of the room. It was big enough for a human to pass through without having to bow down.

"Do you feel well enough to stand on your own?" the waiter asked, offering me a hand in case not.

"We're going in there?" I asked, with that kind of dry, disbelieving voice not really asking a question.

"Afraid so, missy," Yusuke grinned and leaped through the shining opening. And disappeared.

"It's not dangerous," Kuwabara assured. "It just looks a little dumb to begin with." And he laughed… a goofy laugh. Before following the capped one.

"Come now, we don't have all day," Botan said. "Grab on," she smiled from where she sat riding an- oar?

"…Right." I slowly sat up and swung my legs out of the bed. _I must have hit my head seriously hard. I'm hallucinating._

I shook my head slowly, gently rubbing my temple. _But since it's just a dream or illusion, it won't hurt me to explore it. _And I gave a lightly wry smile.

Though my legs were a little bit wobbly (_at least some parts of the reality still affect me in this dream_) I got myself over to and through the shimmering, white hole.

It's impossible to describe what it felt like. I had a feeling the others were so used with journeying this way they did not feel it; but for me it was the first time. Even though it was only for a split second, that small wink when the world around me was all white and I was neither places, I could feel it. How to explain it? A sucking, perhaps? Like the feeling of being sucked at or sucking at something. Like being inside out, but in a pleasant way.

"He was watching us!" Kuwabara pointed to the screen, like the fact was oblivious to everyone else.

"Hey, can you get other things than us and work related stuff in on that thing?" Yusuke wondered. "Or has your father put a 'kids-lock' on it to only allow stuff fit for a toddler?" he grinned, hands in pockets.

"Unlike someone else, I have to work," the little baby ruler growled, waiving his golden stamp around.

"_Hey_. We're the ones doing all the dirty work _for you._ Don't go pulling that one on me, pinky-breath!"

I watched them calmly. I would have liked to say I had been this collected the whole time, but: When first entering the room (after walking through a seriously big hall and gate) I had displayed more or less the same reaction many others who met him for the first time had shown. I had stared at him in a taken aback state, strongly resembling shock, and further questioning the others disbelievingly if this was the guy that was bossing them around.

But now all that had eased down; the shock of the ruler, the awe for the palace, my further disbelieve at the tale of them being demons and spirit humans and what not. And at the moment we were shown exactly what had happened after I passed out with that delinquent gang from earlier. That feeling from meeting the ruler earlier came rushing back inside me, now weighting more toward shock and twice that.

"And you're trying to tell me that's me? That…_thing_?" I asked. So disbelieving and dry in the voice even Koenma looked stressed at the thought of explaining everything. None the less, he gave it a good try.

"Yes. And I hope you understand that we could not leave you alone anymore, no matter how little we wished to interfere with your life," he said.

"No, I don't understand. And "we could not leave you alone _anymore_"?" I had crossed my arms long time ago and was standing in that oh-so-normal stance of a female arguing: hip 'tilted' and right leg propped a little further out from the body giving it that tilted, skewed stance.

"Ah, yes," it was his turn to rub his temples slightly. "To tell the truth; we've been keeping an eye on you for quite some time."

"Is that so?" I stood there hard as a mountain. The fact that this was not more than a dream or illusion was forgotten.

"Yes. As you have discovered, Kurama here was stationed at your favourite restaurant-" (_So that's his real name?_)"-and Yusuke has the past weeks come to your school. Kuwabara have been following you around the streets, which is why he was the one to find you in that alley." I suppose he tried to feed it all to me gently. It didn't help my mood though.

"I see. And what in the world made it necessary to invade more than half of my privacy all this time?"

Koenma pulled in a deep breath. Had he not been serious before, then he was that now.

"We discovered you were too powerful to be left alone. At the worst case scenario, you might have ended up hurting someone without meaning to. As you just witnessed, at your current state your transforming power alone is enough to make normal humans fall unconscious to the ground."

"So what you're saying is that's for my own sake?"

"I suppose you could put it that way. What would you do if you end up hurting your friends or family?"

I couldn't argue with that, and had to make do with simply send him a narrow stare. A stare which I in turn sent to everybody present in the room. That being a big guy with orange hair (_the only 'human', huh?_), a smaller guy with way too much hair gel, a miraculously red haired guy with green eyes (_is that body really Japanese?_), a baby claiming to be the son of God, and a blue haired girl flying about riding an oar.

"And how do I know you're not a couple of 'bad guys'?"

"Why do you even bother with her? She has only brought trouble thus far. Why not just let her kill all her friends and family. The earth is overcrowded after all."

Each and everyone in the room spun their attention toward the door. "_Hiei_," Kurama burst out in surprise mixed with reprove.

"That's gotta be one of the longest sentence I've ever heard him say to a new person," Yusuke muttered. "Normally he'd just give an 'hn'."

"He must really dislike her, huh?" Kuwabara watched the small kid with gravity defying hair enter the room. And even though they spoke in low voices I had a feeling he had heard every word. –Despite him being on the opposite side of the big room.

Okay, maybe calling him a kid would be a little over the edge: As he came over I realized him to actually be taller than me. Not much, but he clearly was.

"Hiei, can you not be a little more polite? She is new after all. It is not strange for a girl like her to have problems believing all this."

The small one with stunning red eyes glared at the green eyed one, -though was not able to scare his gentle look away.

"Don't listen to him," Yusuke said to me as the spike haired guy walked away to stand on the outside of the crowd. "He's always been an ass," Yusuke grinned.

"Back to what's important," Koenma raised his voice to gain everyone's attention. "I want you four to teach her how to use her powers. And look after her so that the power she is emitting don't attract any troublesome demons and so on," Koenma instructed his four servants.

Hiei was the one giving off the most reaction to that. "You already asked us to play babysitters for those two," he pointed his glare towards Yusuke and Kuwabara. "And now you want us to look after _another _one. A woman at that. I'm afraid to say the deal we made did not cover this." He growled, arms crossed much like me and sent off glares ready to kill anyone opposing him.

"You have something against women?" I couldn't help but burst out. I was in the mood where I did not care much anyways.

"If I recall correctly, you did not help out keeping an eye on Fai, so-"

"And that should talk enough for itself," Hiei rudely interrupted the red head.

"-you could at least help out with this," Kurama ended his sentence. Had Hiei been a cat –or dog for that matter – I'm sure he would have barred his fangs at the red head. Instead he just growled in his throat.

"Hiei, our deal was that you would escape imprisonment in the return of you – both you and Kurama – giving me your services," Koenma enlightened the little guy. "But of course, if you prefer the prison, then…" the pacifier sucking ruler let the sentence hang in the air. And it hung there in the silence weighting down at the gravity defying hair all until I pushed it away by sturdily exclaiming:

"I'm in."

"What?" Kuwabara just had to question. Probably had been so engulfed in the tension between the little one and the baby ruler that he had forgotten what I was there for.

"Good," Koenma nodded. And the tension between him and Hiei dwindled compared to the one building up between me and Spiky Hair.

"You…" Hiei was obviously too strangled by his own anger to say anything more.

"Oh yeah," I said with a growing sly smile. "I'm so in." And served him a death glare of my own. On the screen to my right had the play-back of the earlier event been paused; rough looking boys in the middle of shooting backwards through the air as if hit by a gigantic wave, and in the middle of them a sword fell to the ground.

* * *

And that's where I'm standing. My situation in a nutshell. While a presence is growing in my head. I don't like it. I defiantly don't like it…_Go away…_ I don't want it. _Go away. _I really don't. _Go away! _I can't take it anymore. I'll be completely exposed to the least person I want.

_GO AWAY! _


	2. Chapter 2

_"GO A-!"_

I gasped for breath. _Wood_? A wooden wall faced me as I sat up straight.

"What…?" I looked around, slowly. And soon I realised I was in my own bed, in my own room and – most _most_ likely – in my own house.

After staring, all tensed up, at my abnormally normal surroundings I let out a long moan and fell back on my pillow.

"You gotta be kidding me."

I don't know how long I stayed in bed. Like a numb idiot I simply stared at the roof, lost in my own thoughts.

In the end though I figured I had to get downstairs and assure my mother I was alive and up. And make sure I did not end up with detention. So swinging the two long limbs called legs out of the bed I somehow got up. A little bit wobbly, but other than that it proceeded on to being yet another totally normal morning: Washing my face, brushing my hair, going to the toilet –all that.

Further on I tumbled my tired feet through the small hallway separating my room and the bathroom from the kitchen. Leaning on the white painted door for it to open I spoke my normal "good morning", shuffled across the floor and took my normal seat by the table.

It was still nothing but a totally normal morning.

"Say Fai," mother finished readying the table and sat down on the opposite side. "I thought all your friends were girls?"

"...What?" I looked up.

"You're one tired chick in the morning," Yusuke snickered at me. Where he popped up from I had no idea. But mum did have a point: Our kitchen was small and now it did not just contain its normal duo of mother and child, but also nothing less than three other teenage boys -or so I discovered as I looked around. So really, how _did_ I manage to manoeuvre my way through this overly crowded small room without noticing our guests the slightest?

Kuwabara laughed. "You're one to talk Urameshi." Though that was a fight he could never win: "Then don't get me started on _you_," Yusuke efficiently replied and shut Kuwabara up.

"Good morning, Fai," Kurama politely greeted with his ever so gentle smile. In return I stared dumbly at them. Though at last I got my vocal cords working again:

"What're you guys d- I mean I thought- it's just- I don't- ...Good morning guys."

Yusuke broke out laughing. Mum asked them all to sit down and enjoy the breakfast with us. They did, some enjoying it more than other. With this I'm _discretely_ pointing to a certain detective and goofy orange-head.

* * *

_"Get away from me!" _

_The last time I had screamed out loud, startling everyone in the room, to put it nicely. However, what followed was not as easy to put into words. _

_A split second__ we fought. Though not physically. It was just this feeling that someone was trying to -however wicked it may sound- force way into my head, my mind. _

_It was not a pleasant feeling, not the least. I didn't want the present there -WHAM! A light, bright and hard hit me and flung me out of my surroundings. _

_Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara and all the others disappeared. For a moment I couldn't see a thing. Nothing but this blinding light that at the same time was not light at all but darkness. Perhaps. _

_The light materialised. A biting cold soon followed with it, and something I after a while recognised to be snowflakes hit my face. Slowly my eyelids parted, and I peered out at this new, unknown cold snow paradise. _

_For a while, a while of several years, I could not move. Or I did not wish to move. I was not sure. __Then something pulled at me, a light tug at first but ended as a powerful pull and I was once again flung forwards. Or backwards. Which direction was it? _

_There were so many pictures, things to sense, understand and see. Too much for my human mind to take in all at once. _

_Tears, glittering tears. Only two, later many. Hard, round tears of great value. And two small children, nothing but toddlers. Separated. And then- _

_a cliff down to a white nothing. __But there was so much more than just the pictures. There were words, feelings, things too confusing to understand. _

_In the back of my mind something grew closer. _

_A small boy, a simple strap as necklace. A beautiful stone dancing at its bottom. It was like a small shining star in a world of darkness, swords and death. Though no matter __how much blood spilt and no matter how much blood tainting the shadows, the red colour was not able to reach this divine shine._

_It was like a voice growling out "what are you doing here?" Into my whole being. _

_So much blood. _

_The presence grew stronger, until the point where it hurt. The pictures running before my eyes went blurry, like an interrupted TV signal. _

* * *

It wasn't until we had left the house and put some distance between us and it that I could finally express my surprise and shock to the fullest.

"What are you guys _doing_ here?"

Kurama smiled politely –does he ever do otherwise? – and said: "I'm sure you thought it was all a dream, but I am afraid we and you were all there yesterday."

"Bu- But I was in my bed," I stuttered confused, half-heartedly pointing back toward home. Kurama looked puzzled for a short moment but then lit up again as he probably got a full grasp of the situation again. "Well it would not be too strange if you don't remember what happened, a mind fight with Hiei is not something to take lightly."

"A mind fight?" I wondered. Kurama nodded.

"Yes, if I'm not mistaken, that is what happened between the two of you when you so _bashfully_ said you were "in"," Kurama smiled, his eyes glinting teasingly as he emphasized on the word _bashfully_ ever so slightly, letting me know that was not what he meant at all. Yusuke snickered, linking his hands behind his neck.

"You really went and pissed him off," he said. "It was awesome." And he broke into a louder laugh.

"Yes, it was quite entertaining," Kurama agreed honestly, enjoying this just as much as the detective. "It has been a while since I saw him that frustrated. - even when exposed to Kuwabara and Yusuke's teasing attacks."

Kuwabara, who until now had taken part in Yusuke's laughing, stopped and looked thoughtfully at the other two.

"But why did he do it?" he wondered, causing Yusuke to cease his laughing as well.

"Who knows," he shrugged. But when given a few more seconds to think it over he too looked more in thought. "He doesn't usually invade peoples minds like that. Even though he is a small sized asshole, he still plays by some rules." He and Kuwabara tried to figure it out for one more minute, before their brains hit their limit and they looked to Kurama for the answer.

The poor red head sweatdropped at little, raising his hands in pitiful defence.

"I have known him for a long time, but I am no mind reader."

"True," Yusuke sighed. "You're not the type to pry on others lives. Damn."

"Ah... hah hah ha..." Kurama double sweatdropped, and you –as him– wondered whether to take Yusuke's remark as an insult or a compliment. The redhead fell serious.

"However, Hiei is not the type that blindly trusts others. I am sure he had his reasons."

Yusuke stuffed his hands in his pockets. His brown eyes looked up at the flawless morning sky. A few thin white clouds lay scattered across the light blue sphere. With a thin, white layer covering the ground the shop windows counted the days until Christmas, all kinds of traits and offers on display to trick the moneyless student and busy parents to drop by.

A few frozen and tired shop owners ran across the street and about in their shops, readying what they had of red decorations in the early morning. Small lights following the streets were already lit and even though it was still early, a clear expectation and anticipation hang in the air.

"It's going to be even colder tomorrow," I noted, gazing up at the light blue winter sky.

* * *

I had trouble believing it to begin with. Staring at them I was unable to concentrate on whatever the teacher was preaching about the first two lessons. Though that had its price in the end when our ruthless teacher finally noticed. The rest of that school day was not so pleasing.

"You know, I'm starting to really wonder who that guy is," Haru said.

"So you saw him too?" Liru asked, leaning in across the table.

"No, not at all," Sakura said sarcastically. Liru rolled her eyes a little but nodded still.

"Sakura's right, who wouldn't?" Ichigo said dipping a spoon in her yoghourt. All the while I followed the conversation closely. Maka tilted her head. "But what do you think he is really doing here? Before he was her at his own at least, but now there's three of them."

_Jupp, they are talking about Yusuke and co alright._

And thus I spent the rest of the eating break pondering on whether I should tell the others I knew the strangers or not. And while my being quiet went unnoticed by them, they continued discussing what in the world the three boys could be doing standing outside our school all day.

* * *

"Is "_discreetly_" a foreign word to you guys?"

I groaned and flopped down in what I supposed to be Kurama's couch. (Unless he stole it from someone else, but that's unlikely and way beside the point.)

Yusuke scratched the back of his head in brief thought before shrugging. "I think Kurama mentioned something about that, but who cares?" He grinned widely. "And nothing happened right? What could've happened anyway?"

I sighed. He was right, partly. There wasn't much danger to find lurking about my school. And it's not the most unnatural thing in the world so see people outside a school. It's not like it's a crime to stand outside another school than your own, even during the winter in several minus degrees. It's just foolish.

I was tempted to point out they could have spent some time in a warm café or something, and that I would not meaninglessly go transforming or whatever in school and harm people.

That much being said, I didn't even know if I could pull that transforming-thingy off one more time. Let alone all by myself.

But I didn't say anything. Instead I scanned Kurama's tidy, warm and friendly home.

"Hello you guys!"

Botan left the door wide open as she cheered loudly. Keiko followed behind her with Yukina gently closing the door.

"That makes us all then," Botan smiled, counting the heads in the group. "Shizuru couldn't make it," Keiko informed as Botan's finger lingered in the air. "She had some of her own business to take care of."

"Then we'll just start without her," Botan decided. "Where's Hiei?" she added without a pause for breath.

"In the window," I surprised everyone by saying. My thumb pointed over my shoulder, and true enough; there he sat and he had been from the very beginning.

"Uhm, right," Botan looked a little thrown off balance but quickly picked herself up again. "Then let's begin."

What happened after this is not a very interesting tale. The three hours spent in Kurama's home before everyone left mostly consisted of talking and discussions about how and who should train me and so on. Somewhere in the middle Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei landed in a rather heated argument but judging from the others' faces this was not something out of the ordinary.

In the end they decided for me to train each day. To myself I thought that if this training was as tough as they made it sound I'd never survive two days of it. However out loud I agreed, shrugged and smiled. Kurama who with his mastermind must have somehow caught onto my half-hearted thoughts smilingly said he would help me prepare for the Christmas exams in between all the training. Yusuke, with Kuwabara agreeing loudly, said I could never fail with the fox as my teacher.

"Are you sure you do not want us to walk you home?" Kurama asked for the hundredth time.

"Yes, I'm sure." I rolled my eyes but had to smile at his friendly worry and polite offer. "I managed perfectly fine before I got to know you guys, and if someone attacks me I'll just transform, right?" With a grimace at the last sentence I waved a last cheerful good bye and hurried through the dark winter cold. In front of me my breath made small clouds that would have made my glasses dew if I had had any.

From shadows too dark black for my eyes to pierce through a silent gaze followed my every movement, not leaving me for a second until I was behind and had closed my front door. Without a sound, resting between naked branches of a white layered park not a single shudder of cold was witnessing to the low temperature having any effect on the figure. But what would I know about that? I had no spirit awareness whatsoever and by the time cold eyes had left me I was warm and safe in my bed.

* * *

"To grow stronger was your wish, was it not? When you stole the _Conjuring Blade_ of _The Three Dark Treasures _from the underworld?"

"And so if I did?"

"Therefore you should be able to understand that teaming up with her will not slow you down. Rather it will give you the power you desired, and that with interest."

"That so? And why should that change anything?"

"Because I know you are the type that will stop at nothing to obtain what you want, and what you want is power."

* * *

"... no way."

I stared at Kurama, baffled at- well, both myself and him and the rest of "some-place-called-heaven-and-hell-actually-exists-group".

"And you guys who had made it sound so hard and like I was never gonna make it in a hundred years." Though as irony has it, right as I had uttered those words my knees gave in and I collapsed in an exhausted heap on the ground.

"Hn."

As I glared offended up at the demon I had figured to be seriously annoying and irritating and frustrating and negative, Yusuke's snickering accompanied his oh-so-famous "sentence". I turned my energy-lacking glare to Yusuke. "Well," I said after being too frustrated at the two ass-holes to speak a word. "You'd be exhausted too if you were me!"

Yusuke's snicker decreased to a grin as he slid is thumb past is nose. "Been there, done that."

I stared up at him in the tree above me, gaze softening.

"I suppose we should say "welcome to the gang" for real now then," Kurama joked with his always gentle smile, offering me a hand to get up. I took it and slowly got up on my feet. Or at the very least; I tried. Tumbling back to land on my butt it was clear to everyone present I had not yet caught my breath properly.

"Though it is nothing unusual for you to be this worn out," Kurama added. Yusuke left his tree and slung down on his back on the snow. "Yeah, I felt like I was gonna die the first few weeks I trained at grandma's." He slid his arms under his head. With eyes gazing up at cold, blue sky he continued: "I had first thought Kurama would be of the gentle teacher kind," he hesitated. Sitting up, he grinned while snow decorated his black hair. "I guess I was mistaken."

"And _that_ guy was not making it easier," Kuwabara added, pointing to Hiei, and I knew he felt sorry for me. "I trained with those guys once," Kuwabara shuddered as he remembered. "It's when they train you their real demon selves appear," he said, lowering his voice to a whisper.

However, I doubt even he thought they wouldn't hear him. Kurama turned to us with a bright smile, Hiei suddenly standing behind him.

"What?" Kurama wondered. "Did you not appreciate our help?"

Kuwabara was not the only one to sweatdrop and back away a few steps.

"Just kidding, just kidding!" Kuwabara waved his hands franticly, laughing nervously. Kurama kept his smile, resting hands on hips, letting his smile widen.

"He looks scary as hell," I muttered to Yusuke.

"Yeah," he agreed under his breath. "Let's run for it. On the count of three." We glanced at each other.

"One," I breathed.

"Two," he whispered.

"Three!" We turned on the spot and set off toward a cliché setting sun with Kuwabara shrieking in the background:

"_Hey! Don't leave me alone with the demons!" _

"Don't worry, you'll manage just fine," Yusuke yelled back.

"You know," I threw a glance at him as we ran. "You're one of them," I mentioned.

"You got a point." He slowed down for a second. "Ah, hell. They still scare the shit out of me."

Several feet behind Kuwabara tried to keep up with us -seemingly failing miserably for a moment. Though he must have had a hidden extra source of power, because suddenly he was right behind me within arms reach. Well, I had to compliment on his effort and hard work, but it was all wasted when he stumbled in his own feet due to the pace being too fast for him to keep up with.

He fell, grabbing my foot in a desperate attempt not to be left alone with the two demons hunting us.

Of course this resulted in me falling too, and we tumbled down a hill to our right.

"You guys okay?" Yusuke slid down after us, leaving clouds of snow to dance as a tail behind him. He snickered and laughed all the while surfing down on the snow as I and Kuwabara had a small wrestling match at the bottom.

"Up for a nice hug, are we?"

"Oh crap," Kuwabara gasped. Both us looked up, both of us covered with snow, both of us with arms and legs tangled into one another. Both of us scared witless.

Kurama and Hiei hovered above us, like hawks ready to dive down at defenceless small mice any time.

I think it was a combination of Yusuke's kind heart and our own panic that got us away from the danger zone: Yusuke had yanked us backwards -which shot could snow up my nose and into my mouth – and one way or the other I and Kuwabara joined forces to stumble away. Or perhaps more like fled aimlessly from the same enemy.

"It appears to me," Hiei said, gracing us with the presence of his growling voice. "That the new girl wants some more practice."

"I believe you are right," Kurama smiled.

His words became like the gun starting a race, and we charged head first at each other. Such things as tactics and mind games were thrown away to give room for a wild, senseless raw brawl in the snow.

No one paid any heed to the snow soaking our clothes, no one cared about the snow entering all openings possible, and no one shrieked as it melted down backs and necks to make our very bones ache with cold. And I think it was somewhere in all the confusion and mess that Kuwabara grabbed my hand and yelled "transform" into my ear.

Yusuke had is hands full holding Kurama off and Hiei was charging at us from a heap of snow, his clothes more white than black now. It was quite the surprise to see him willingly play around in the snow like this, and the last thing I would expect him to do. But then again he was not the type to back down from a challenge, and no matter how much he hated to lose he was sure as hell not going to keep me from winning. I didn't go through three weeks of murderous training for nothing.

I grinned, eyes glinting and obeyed Kuwabara without a second thought. I was a sword to the fullest of its beauty. The big goof grabbed my hilt, and in the split second before they charged at each other I saw Hiei curl up to kick off, grab his sword -and it was on.

Two swordsmen battling off in the grand Snow Freezing Tournament.

I didn't keep count of how many times they spared back and forth. What I did know however, was that it was long enough for Kurama and Yusuke to stop fighting and watch instead.

In-between the sharp sound of blade clashing against blade I could pick up traces of the two's conversation.

"You know," Yusuke said. Kuwabara and Hiei were long swallowed up in the battle to notice the two viewers.

"Normally Kuwabara wouldn't last this long against Hiei."

In-between Kuwabara's grunts of concentration I heard Kurama reply: "It is because of Fai's power as a w-" We clashed together again.

"So it's like a play station game?" How many times had Yusuke been to an arcade to combine real life combat and play station? Hiei threw Kuwabara off balance.

"-the weapon increases the fighter's ability s-"

That might have been the reason to why Kuwabara hadn't lost yet.

"-makes sense, I-"

But Hiei was still way superior in fighting skills against both of us combined. Kuwabara just barely saved his head from being severed from his body. He hurled his arm around and I protected him from damage -but that too just barely.

"-it really is like pl-" Yusuke snickered somewhere in the background.

But other than Hiei harbouring higher developed skills than Kuwabara, something else was starting to disturb the flow of the battle.

"-But to think-"

Or maybe it was just my imagination? The sharp sound of blade hitting blade sounded through the forest.

"-that Kuwbara-"

Kuwabara was getting heavier, and there was something really odd about his grip. It wasn't just my imagination.

"-would be strong enough-"

Kuwabara roared and threw his whole body weight forwards to crush Hiei. How he planned to make that work with Hiei's ability to dodge swiftly, I had no idea.

"-to wield Fai."

Kuwabara screamed out in pain. The big goof flung me away. Like he had gotten burned he backed away. He fell backwards, the cold embracing snow catching him. Hiei slid his sword back into its sheath, not the slightest struggling for air and looking down at the gasping and panting Kuwabara.  
For a moment though I had really thought we could win. But when looking back at the battle, Hiei had not been taking it seriously. He just hated to leave a battle with the goof without a clear victory in case that would encourage Kuwabara to even dare think the thought of him being stronger than Hiei.

"In the end he wasn't," Kurama said.

"Hey, you okay man?" Yusuke managed to speak through his laughter. Kuwabara was glaring at him. Or grinning at him? He didn't seem properly in control of his face. Yusuke offered him a hand regardless, but Kuwabara couldn't stand on his feet.

He wobbled, leaned onto Yusuke heavily. His eyes crossed, his hands -probably reaching for support I figured later- flailed about in the air aimlessly. That continued until he lost the last ounce of coordination, balance and strength he had left. He flopped down in the snow again.

"Dude...?" Yusuke's forehead wrinkled slightly. "What's wrong?"

Kuwabara spent thirty seconds making his voice composed into words. Thirty seconds may not sound much, but when spent watching him struggle it was quite the long wait.

"Y- you tell me," he managed to utter at last. At this Yusuke had no replies and instead turned his attention to me as I lay gasping on the ground.

"Yoh..." I swallowed hard in a try to ease up my sore, cold throat. "You tell..." I tried to sit up.

"...me."

Kurama decided to answer when Yusuke shrugged; "Fai's and Kuwabara's powers are not in tune with each other," he explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Yusuke put words to our blank looks: "Something like that exists?"

Kurama smiled -seriously, when does he ever do otherwise?- "I had a talk with Koenma not too long ago to confirm my theories. And he gave me right. It appears so that as a weapon, the wielders spirit or demon energy has to blend with the weapons. -I do not know how to explain this without it getting complicated, but it works somehow like this: For them to be able to use each other to the utmost of each other's powers and to simultaneously cooperate best way possible, their energy has to be on wavelength and tuned in to fit so that they can blend. You see," Kurama walked over to me and helped me up on my feet. "Automatically when someone grabs the weapon -whether it be a skilled swordsman or random demon- the spirit energy from the sword will try to enter and flow within the wielders body. And likewise for the wielder -even though they both are not necessarily aware of this. This from the instinct of wanting to fight best possible. And so, if the different powers are not able to blend, they can only cooperate for so long." The gentle redhead helped me keep my balance, briefly asking if I was alright.

"And before us we have a splendid example of the result of a mismatch." His green orbs shifted from Yusuke to Kuwabara and also to Hiei for a short moment, to make sure he had made himself understood. "However of course, both sides have to practice and train to reach the utmost level of their power when combined, but some are more out of the question than others."

The rest spoke for itself.

"So... who's up for some ice-cream?"

Four pairs of baffled, taken aback eyes stared at Yusuke.

And after a thirty-four seconds long silence we all broke out laughing. Kurama bit down at his thumb to restrain himself.

"Ice-cream? But it's winter," Kuwabara tried to recover from the laughing. And to my surprise, even the cold Hiei seemed lightly entertained. -Seemed, remember; just _seemed. _I would not go into his head just to figure out whether or not he was entertained. I fell quiet at the thought though. I had yet to learn how to focus my thoughts. Compared to Hiei who could choose when and on whom to focus his thoughts and infiltrate their minds, I had no control. Up until now I had found the easiest way to be to think of something else.

I suppose Hiei's extra annoyed and irritating behaviour around me isn't something I can blame just him for: I mean, I would also be angry if someone I didn't know kept on forcing their way into my mind every living day and second constantly for two weeks. It was at about that time that I somehow gained control over it -or I learned how to force my thoughts onto something entirely different. But what was even stranger than this automatic "mind-invasion" reaction, was the fact that it only happened with Hiei. As a matter of fact, I didn't seem possible to do it to somebody else.

But now my mind seemed set on it again. And no matter how hard I tried focusing on what Kuwabara, Kurama and Yusuke were saying, I couldn't make any sense of their conversation. Except that it was about ice-cream, but one doesn't need a doctor grade to understand that much.

Then I made the mistake: A split second I glanced up. My eyes met Hiei's. At once my force doubled. His narrowing, glowing crimson eyes clearly told me he had noticed and that it annoyed him. But he said nothing. And neither did I, for that matter. I was too focused on trying to think of something else to manage the speaking part anyway.

Hiei's defence was surely no easy nut to crack, but rather than forcefully trying to break through it felt like my own mind was being sucked through, despite all his protests. And there was nothing I could do to either get further into or out of his brain. I really had no control, and no idea why this was happening.  
And in the back of my mind I wondered distantly how I was able to break into the mind of such an experienced demon, even though it wasn't directly _me _doing it sort of. This question and all the others would most likely remain unanswered.

I closed my eyes. Soon, soon the snow around us would be reflected in a much harsher and freezing one inside my mind from memories belonging to someone else than myself.

I...

"Hey, Fai. You listening?" Yusuke grabbed my shoulder. "What kind of ice-cream do you want?" he asked.

I blinked confused. Yusuke rolled his eyes, but grinned widely at the same time. "I-c-e c-r-e-a-m. What kind do you want?"

"Oh," I couldn't get rid of my looking baffled and blankly at him. "Chocolate... I guess?"

"Ok," the detective straightened up. "Chocolate it is. You guys wait here, c'mon Kuwabara let's- on second thought, you wait here too. I'll get the ice-cream."

"Wait!" Yusuke had only moved four steps. "I'm coming with you." I got up in a hurry, stumbled a little with stars dancing before my eyes from getting up too fast. And so the two of us went off to buy ice-cream.

I ignored the urge to glance back at Hiei. It would only make everything worse.

"Aw, you gotta be kiddin' me!" Yusuke suddenly groaned out loud.

* * *

So, has anyone noticed all the "you got to be kidding me"s? I was actually planning on calling the story that at first. xD But I changed it later, though. Felt it didn't quite cover it or something.


	3. Chapter 3

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Koenma's calling," Yusuke groaned, looking at his little... radio-thingy I never quite understood how worked through different dimensions and worlds. "Guess we'll have to drop the ice-cream," he sighed.

"I know someone who's gonna be real depressed about that," I mumbled.

"What?"

"No, nothing." If there was one thing that I had realised in my countless, accidental and completely unwanted -unwanted on both sides- mind attacks was that the little hot-blooded fire demon really loved _sweet snow_.

* * *

"What's up, sucker breath?"

"Hello Yusuke," Koenma's eyebrow twitched ever so slightly.

"What you got for us this time?" Yusuke looked up at the giant screen, expecting to get a spectacular show followed with more than enough information on the new troublemakers.

"You don't need that."

Yusuke and Kuwabara almost fell over. We all stared at Koenma, who after his brief welcome to us, had now began stamping an inhuman huge hill of paper that never seemed to shrink.

"Right..." Yusuke sweatdropped. "We'll just get going then..." He lifted his eyebrows, hands in pockets as Koenma shooed one hand to the door where Botan entered.

"Hello Yusuke," she cheered joyfully. "This shouldn't take too long. All you have to do is split up and go through here." The bubblegum-haired grim reaper urged you over to a shimmering disturbance mid-air where a portal then appeared.

-If there was one thing I had gotten used to over these three weeks, then it was things popping out of thin air.

"These demons have been quite the nuisance to us lately. Take care of them for us, k'? Have a nice trip." She smiled widely.

"Wait, we don't get any information on them whatsoever?" Yusuke asked confused.

"They shouldn't take you too long to fight." So much for a chance of some preparation beforehand.

Something hit me in the back. It was so sudden and uncalled for that I without protest fell through the portal.

"Urgh, man," I groaned and propped myself up with one hand. "Care to make the travel any more painful?" I rubbed my forehead, squeezing my eyes shut as stars in different colours did the boogie on the backside of my eyelids.

"Move."

"What?" I squinted down.

Hiei stared back up at me, and for what had to be five still standing minutes we did nothing but stare at each other.

"...You're kidding me," I said with a sweatdrop. "If I didn't know this was reality I'd say I was some character in a fan fiction," I commented dryly at my position on his stomach, each leg on either side of him and left hand firmly leaned on his chest.

"I don't care what you think or don't know, just get off, baka onna. You're heavy."

I glared at him, but it soon changed into something quite else. "If I didn't know better, I'd get really angry at that offence. But, I forgive you. I know that behind all your tough acts you really are a weak, fragile guy, so don't worry." I patted his head, watching with pleasure as his eyes narrowed. "I'm afraid I didn't bring any band aids, so you'll have to be a big boy and hang on until we get home."

"I don't care even if you _are_ a stupid human girl; you're asking to get killed," the fire demon growled. In reply I smiled, keeping up the act I knew all too well pissed him off.

"Aw, you're so sweet Hiei."

His eyes glinted dangerously. I was aware I probably was pushing my luck -a great deal-, but couldn't help it. I ignored him and looked around. I couldn't see the others anywhere.

"Guess we're a team then."

"You-"

Surely he had a whole store full of insults at the ready by now. But I never got to hear them: Instead of throwing evil comments at me, Hiei abruptly sat up. He simultaneously placed one arm around my waist and before I knew what was going on, he kicked off from the ground.

From a tree branch high up I could see five daggers dug deep down in the ground where we had been lying only seconds earlier.

"Gosh, and here I thought you were gonna hug me," I said, and surprised staring at the daggers I almost forgot to add an ironic touch to my voice. "But you actually saved my life." I looked at him even more surprised. He did not look back at me. Instead his hand was at the sword hilt, staring out through the leaf at what was a group of several lower demons approaching.

"Don't get used to it onna, I too would have been pierced by those daggers if I didn't, and whether I like it or not; you are a part of Koenma's team. So don't believe I did it for your sake."

"Why, thank you," I faked a pout. Though somewhere deep down that did sting a little. Then again, on the bright side he had at least gotten used to, and accepted the fact I was a part of the group. That was at least something.

But I didn't have time to dwell on it; we had more urgent business at hand to take care of.

The small gang of demons were closing in on us quickly, even I could tell that, though it took me longer to spot them than it took for him. But of course I didn't let him in on that. Soon however, seven demons scanned the ground beneath us, one of them collecting the daggers in the process.

One could have believed Hiei to have turned into stone, that's how still he sat. And I did my best too, not wanting to screw up his surprise attack.

Sure, through these three weeks of inhuman training I had gained enough skills to take out any ordinary human. And sure, it was no problem fighting the others. -But I knew they wouldn't kill me. And even though I had become fairly good in hand to hand combat on an average demon basis considering it had _only_ have been _three_ weeks of training, there was just something about the several inches long claws and those well aimed daggers that made me want to be a little bit more careful than when fighting Kuwabara.

Hiei must have found a perfect opening; he left the branch without a word or a glance in my direction. Down on the ground attacking the first demon he didn't look like he expected me to join in either.

Now that fired up my fighting spirit. With the joyful thought of proving him wrong I climbed two branches down before jumping after him.

And it wasn't all too difficult I figured -after the first demon I faced scared me. But when calming down and following the instructions Kurama had repeated so many times he could have given any official preacher a good run for his money, it wasn't so difficult at all. After a while I even managed to grin a little.

And it widened with pleasure as I dodged a pair of claws and beat said demon's lights out.

"Take that. You're not the only one who can do this Hiei," I said hunting after the next demon to send off to unconsciousness. Kicking the feet away under him, my prey fell to the ground, as served on a silver platter for me to kick him senseless.

"And who do you expect to clean up after you?" Hiei suddenly appeared behind me, back to back.

"What do you mean?" I hesitated a second with my leg lifted.

"Unconscious demons will wake up eventually and cause more trouble. Either you kill them or you stay out of the way," Hiei said simply.

I don't know how those time-bending things occur or how they work. All I know was that right before my very eyes it seemed like time itself slowed down. At the same time all the sounds surrounding me dimmed away. But it must all have happened in the matter of seconds, nothing but a trick of the mind.

I turned, feeling like his words had awakened me from a sweet dream. Before I could question the sentence ringing in my head Hiei swung his sword.

With one, precise, clean cut he sliced an attacking demon open.

And first now, as I stumbled away from the unconscious demon on the ground underneath my feet did I discover the other six demons he had slain. First now did I understand why Hiei had been so negative to me joining the group. And first now did I discover the difference between me and a skilled fighter such as Hiei and Kurama and the others:

A skilled fighter would never have taken his eyes of his prey- the seventh and last demon was close to grabbing me. But I dodged, more due to my unstable condition rather than my fighting abilities. The demon didn't give up. I threw a few punches at him, struggling to clear up my mind and ignore the urge to vomit. Blood had splattered on my clothes. I tripped in my own feet. The only thing that saved me from the demon's dagger was a rough yank in the opposite direction.

"Baka onna," Hiei growled. I laughed. It didn't sound like a laugh. It didn't sound like anything else than it was: a trembling, thin sound squeezed out of a numb throat.

"I'm sorry." I hoped I had more luck with my smile. "I only lost my balance, nothing to worry about."

That's when my knees gave in. I could hear Hiei curse under his breath, but I couldn't see him.

It was nothing like in a manga or anime. There the blood splatter looks amazing and intriguing; there you don't see the gut of several dead spread across the ground, or the wide eyes staring endlessly out into nothing, frozen in despair from their dying moment. In anime and manga you don't smell the blood, you don't hear the breathless, choking sounds of throats slit over.

There was no way a normal human girl with three weeks of practice could handle this. A second I wondered to myself how I could even have considered joining Yusuke's forces. I wished it was all a terrible nightmare.

All I could see was the ground, guts flowing out of blood covered corpses. Limbs spread across the ground, a bodiless head staring straight at me with open mouth. I could almost hear its inhuman scream fill my ears.

I wished I could have held my hands in front of my eyes, or at least closed them.

I saw Hiei's feet move across the corpses. He had unsheathed his sword again; the sound of it slicing through meat was unmistakeable.

The first group must have had backups. A backup stronger than the first wave.

There was a swishing sound. A broken blade dug into the ground only inches from the staring head.

"Fai!" Hiei growled loudly. "Fai, snapp out of it you stupid human!" He shook me violently. He snarled, spun around. My head tilted up. I saw him fight without a sword. After all, a broken sword was useless.

My eyes grew. When did the group of attackers become this big? When did their demon energy grow to be this strong? A demon came headed for me. Hiei sent him flying several feet through the air. He stared at me for a brief second. Then it looked like he made a decision.

Grabbing my shoulder firmly he said:

"Transform."

My mouth opened. In a split second of shock I realised:

I couldn't.

A blade pointed to my chest. But it would never pierce through; it had already been stopped by Hiei's body. He turned, killing the triumphing demon on the spot. I think I was shaking. I was not aware of that then, but if I later could have looked at a recording of myself, I would have found me trembling worse than a leaf in an autumn breeze. Blood covered me. Blood and tears ran down my face. But I didn't notice.

My wide open eyes could not register and transfer any impression to my mind, leaving a white world, unnoticed, around me. The white made the blood just stand out even more.

Because _that_- that red liquid staining my clothes and dripping from my hands, I could see very clearly.

* * *

I shifted. My heart flew faster than any scared rabbit could run. I could barely breathe. There was too much, so much I would drown, a was merely able to keep my head floating over the red, thick liquid. From far away I heard voices. But I didn't understand what they said. I went under. Red everywhere. Not only the disgusting, iron-like smell filling my nose, but now also filling my mouth and flowing down my throat.

I sat up with a gasp. I swallowed the sweet air down into my aching lungs of all might. I could breathe.

"Easy Fai, easy," a gentle voice soothed. Hands supported me, wanted for me to lie back down. But I refused. The last shades of red slowly disappeared from my vision. I saw walls and a roof and floor and people. People I knew.

We were in Koenma's office.

I could have taken it all for a dream. The blood, the sounds, the smells. I'd be happy if it was all just a dream. But Kurama's, Yusuke and Kuwabara's appearances did not invite to that belief. Instead they witnessed to their group of attackers being rougher than first assumed as well. They gathered around me. I didn't feel like asking what had happened while I was out. They didn't say anything of it either. And I knew that whether I wanted it or not I would sooner or later get it all explained and told anyhow.

Instead I battled the urge to both throw up and cry at the same time. But I saw no bucket nearby and didn't feel quite up to soiling Koenma's floor more than necessary so I forced it back with what I had left of strength.

"Man," Yusuke said, being the one to break the silence. Though his voice was not so sure and safe as normal. "Are you alright?"

"Hn."

They all spun toward the sound, like wild animals reacting to a gun shot. Hiei stood leaned up against the wall with his arms crossed. "How pathetic," he said.

"Hiei," Kurama uttered his name a little sharper than he used to. "That's unreasonable."

Hiei's eyes narrowed.

"Yeah man," Kuwabara spoke carefully. "It was her first time an-"

"She is a mere weak human being. A woman, with three weeks of training. What did you expect?" Hiei gazed insensibly at them all, but somehow I had a feeling his glare was not pointed at me. Like the sarcastic words weren't meant for me this time.

"That's wh-" Yusuke began, but Hiei broke him off.

"She is a weak human girl," he snarled, pushing off from the wall.

"There is no need to overdo it, Hiei," Kurama warned. But Hiei pierced him with a crimson glare.

"And you sent her out to _that,_" he said.

No one had any reply to that. Hiei did not say anything more either as he walked out of the room, the gigantic door sliding to a quiet close behind him. The three remaining boys and the baby ruler seemed unable to look at me after that. And the check-up, healing, washing and change of clothes went by in silence.

I wondered if they felt guilty.

Walking down the hallway from the room where I had changed I had finally regained some of the power in my legs. Enough to not wobble at every other step. And I tried my best to shut out the pictures pressing on. I wondered how I had ever thought I could handle this life. Get used to it. How did I ever?

Someone sat leaned up to the wall in a narrow corner. The person was half covered in shadow, and had it not been for my slight halt in thought I would not have noticed the person. I walked closer.

"Hey, you okay?" I tried, my voice a mere whispering. I walked even closer.

"You- _Hiei_?"

* * *

"You've really improved," Yusuke slapped my back with a huge grin. "You're even having me impressed."

"I'm honoured," I said half-heartedly, trying to recover from his blow.

"But I'm surprised Hiei isn't back yet," Kuwabara blurt out. Yusuke sent him a glare but the orange goof ball didn't catch on. "He's always bragging about how strong he is, but even I didn't think that amount of demons could take him down like tha- OW! _What did you do that for_?"

"Because I felt like it," Yusuke replied with one finger wriggling uninterested in one ear.

"Urameshi you-!"

I laughed. "What's so funny?" Kuwabara forgot all about attacking Yusuke for revenge. I shook my head slowly.

"Nothing, nothing," I smiled. "But you're right; who would have thought he would end up that hurt?" I giggled. "We should drop by him tomorrow."

Yusuke pulled at it with a grimace. "Koenma said he had tried to leave before the treatment was done. I have a feeling he won't be too thrilled to see us."

"When did that ever stop you?" I retorted dryly. Yusuke's mouth turned upwards in a sly grin.

"Never," he said. "Okay it's decided; let's drop by our favourite Three-Eyes and give him some flowers."

Kurama sweatdropped. "He might just decide to not only severely wound you, but kill you if you decide to go through with the flower part of your plan, though," he pointed out.

Yusuke looked at him. "I'm not the one who's gonna come with flowers."

Kurama's sweatdrop grew bigger. "By some reason I have a bad feeling about this." Yusuke slapped his back cheerfully.

"Then we'll leave it to you and your flower power-" Yusuke saluted to Kurama "-see you guys tomorrow." And with that as farewell Kuwabara and Yusuke took off toward their homes in the dark.

"Flower power," Kurama repeated slowly. He sighed and I snickered at him. "There you have it," I grinned. And that was left as the last sentence said for several minutes. We walked in silence, listening to the many sounds of the night.

"You don't have to put on a mask."

Kurama had his hands in his pockets, and his green gaze was lost in the sky with its gazillions of stars. I didn't reply. The silence trapped us again. Heavily and unbearable.

"He was right," I said in the end. "I shouldn't have joined you. I didn't have a single clue of what I was getting myself tangled up in."

Kurama watched me. I knew even though I didn't look back at him. He said nothing. He waited.

"It's nothing like I first thought. The worst war movies through history can't even come close to what it really is like." I closed my eyes for a second. The pictures were still clear in my memory, as if five days had not really passed at all.

"You guys-"

Kurama tilted his head slightly. He didn't say or ask anything. Even so I had no doubts he knew the rest.  
_-are killers._


	4. Chapter 4

Kurama looked back up at the sky.

"Your reaction after witnessing that is understandable. And there is nothing wrong with wanting to grow stronger either. But it is possible to over do it." He took a brief pause for the words to properly reach me. "Yusuke is correct; you have improved tremendously during these few past days. But sometimes taking things one step at the time and give oneself enough time is a more effective way."

I knew he was right. I knew, but if I did as he said, the pictures would come back. They still lingered at the back of my eyelids, however, as long as I had a manner of occupying every thought, they would not catch up except for in the dark hours of night.

"And though I am gravely impressed with your rapid improved, you are still only able to transform fifty percent of your tries and you still wince if Kuwabara points a sword at you."

I bit my lip.

"We will all try our best to help you and support you. We will be here for you. And I am positive Hiei too will offer you his assistance if need be, but the final decision you have to make on your own."

Kurama stopped. A smile spread on his face and in the blink of an eye it would seem like the earlier conversation had never taken place.

"Good night Fai, good work today. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, good night Kurama," I copied his smile and gave a short wave. On the inside I was still biting my lip.

"Be careful on your way home," he said.

"I will," I assured and watched him turn the corner in the direction of his home. My teeth poked a hole in the fragile skin. I wanted to throw up as the iron taste leaked into my mouth.

* * *

Kurama had been right: Hiei was not the least thrilled by the over sized flower bouquet we handed him the day after. Had it not been for the healers' strict order for him to stay in bed, he would have killed the three boys on the spot. -Maybe except for Kurama, since I doubted he would be able to. But at least Kuwabara and Yusuke, who just wouldn't stop laughing. They fell over on the floor, clutching their stomachs and laughed until they cried.

Normally I would have been joining them: A colourful –not to mention gigantic- bouquet in _Hiei's _arms was just wrong. I would have been laughing had it not been for the fact I was barely able to even look at him. I remained right by the door and licked the inner side of my bottom lip where I could still feel the tiny, open wound from the night before.

Closer to the bed, Kurama was starting to have a tough time keeping his chuckle down to a minimum thumb-biting one as Hieh threw his breakfast plate at the two morons, proceeding to follow it up with the bouquet next. However, what he hadn't expected –none of us would have– was that Kuwabara grabbed it –caught it mid-air actually, really quite impressive– and threw it back.

It hit Hiei square in the face and with flower petals raining about him and his puzzled look to top it off not even I could keep from laughing.

"Finally," Yusuke grinned.

"What?" my laugh quieted down as I gave him a confused look.

"No no, nothing," Yusuke smiled lopsidedly, waving his hands lazily. Not moving in on the subject any further and completely disregarding my puzzled stare, he walk over to stand by Hiei's bed, joined by Kurama and Kuwabara, asking how the little demon felt and filling him in on news from the past five days.

At some point Hiei was close to setting fire to what remained of the flower bouquet, but all in all it was a successful visit: No one had died. On the way out Yusuke sent Hiei one last teasing grin and Hiei swore he was going to kill him as soon as he was released from the spirit hospital, so perhaps I spoke too fast.

I was the last one to leave the room, grabbing the handle I hesitated, looking down at my own hand clutching a gold coloured round door knob. I didn't turn as I pushed the door close. I could do nothing but stand there, staring at my hand leaning on the pale pink door.

"Hey..." I said slowly. "Are you really okay?" I didn't really dare to turn, but did anyway, forced my feet about. I stared at the white pillow supporting his back, not letting go of it as I stepped closer until I stood right by his bed. I cursed mentally at my shaking hands and pulled in a deep breath.

"I'm s-"

"Hnh. How pathetic."

I jerked at his words, my eyes ripped from the pillow to stare at him. His crimson ones gazed back at me and in his dark pupils I could see my own reflection: A speechless, wide eyed, scared, pathetic little girl. Perhaps a little hurt too.

"You think too highly of yourself." His voice so callous. "If you think these wounds were because of you, then you truly are a stupid human." Hiei looked out the window at the eternal clouds of the spirit world. "Don't make the mistake of believing you're so great that this was all because of you."

I stared at him. There was no clock in the room to count for how long, but it was no less than a millennium, I was sure. At long last Hiei turned, maybe to deliver another lemon sharp comment, though I do not know. For he was kept silent by the sight that met him. I was smiling.

"Thank you."

His eyebrow twitched.

"I have decided," my gaze softened. "I will continue training and grow stronger. I understand that it might be more than I can take. But I have these powers and I- ...I want to use them."

To tell the truth I didn't expect him to answer, and couldn't help but smile wider when he did.

"Hnh."

How much you can call that an answer depends though.

* * *

None of the others had asked me any questions when I returned. They had waited for me by the portal that would take us back home. I had greeted them with a smile, ran the last few steps and flung one arm around each Kuwabara and Yusuke's shoulders.

The following two days I just barely managed to stay awake at school as the entire evening was spent training and I thus had to catch up on homework during the night. And even if my transforming was not back on its feet yet, I tried not to push it.

«Hey Fai, Koenma said he wanted to speak with you.»

I looked up at Yusuke. «Okay.» I expected to get one of the communicators or something but the detective didn't hand me any. A little confuse I added: «Like, right now, or...?»

«He said he'd put up a porta-»

A shimmering hole appeared between us. Yusuke stared.

«That was fast,» he whistled.

«He's never that fast with us,» Kuwabara sulked. And I wasn't completely unimpressed by the baby ruler suddenly being so on time either.

«Don't you know it's unpolite to keep a lady waiting?" I stuck my tongue out at him, quickly stepping through the portal before he could come up with any sort of physical or verbal retort. On the other end however, I faced the last person I expected right then.

«Hn,» was his greeting.

«What are you doing here?» I wondered, catching my balance after the portal-journey. He shrugged.

«Ask Koenma. He's the one who brought us here.» As Hiei said this the gigantic door into Koenma's office opened.

"Wonder what he wants with us -_what the...?"_

An enormous wave of sheets and paper welled through the doorway.

"What the-?" I was long buried in paper before I got to finish my sentence. Hiei on the other hand had escaped the paperslide (landslide - paperslide, get it?^^ ...okay, I suppose you get it).

Hiei hn-ed, smirking slightly and ever so teasingly. He stood by the wall completely unscathed by the paper. I glared back and pushed my way free from the gigantic heap. -Or rather; I tried to, but found it more difficult that what I had expected. I looked up. Somewhere behind all this was the little spirit world prince buried alive.

The imaginary picture made me laugh and the shaking of my body made the paper slide a little bit more so it threatened with covering my poor face. So however much I hated it, I looked to Hiei. "Help?" I asked. His eyes narrowed and glinted and I'm sure his smirk widened, but thanks to a sheet half blocking my view I couldn't be sure. That was perhaps for the best.

"Koenma!"

Both Hiei and I jerked in the direction of the voice. And what we saw was Botan rushing through the hallway on her oar. She slid to a stop – if that is possible in the air – and first now she spotted me.

"_Fai? _Oh my, are you_alright?"_

"I don't know, let's see," I said sarcastically as the worried grim reaper got off of her oar and hurried to my rescue. "I feel terrific," I concluded, as she began shovelling sheets of paper away from around my head. "Just like lying on a warm beach with a nice soda in my hand."

Botan smiled at my joking and after a ten minutes time she had freed me from all the paper.

"Thanks Botan." I breathed my lungs full of air and felt like I had been reborn, like the world had cleared up its colours and I felt oh-so light.

"I'm glad you're alright," Botan said, eyeing me up and down to make sure there were no injuries.

"Yes, thank you -" I smiled an overly polite nod at the grim reaper "-and it's _all thanks to you, _Hiei." poison dripping from my every word. Hiei stood with his arms crossed at the receiving end of my glare, and as the skilled antisocial jerk he was, he coldly shrugged it off without difficulty.

After this I chose to ignore him as we somehow cleared up a path into the room and found Koenma. We cleared the area around his desk and were all four soon standing in a paper-cave, with a small tunnel to lead the way out. And if we look past the fact that we all knew the paper could cave in at any minute, it was rather nice.

However, it didn't _stay _nice, because now Koenma began talking. And what he told us was not very pleasant. Perhaps some of the reason to my over reacting was due to... actually I wasn't sure. Regardless of what was the reason I was in growing danger of become the reason for the paper to collapse again:

"And _how_ do you plan we do _that_?"

"You'll have to figure out that yourselves," Koenma sighed, braiding his fingers with each other.

"There's _no way-" _I breathed in deeply "-I'm gonna let him into my head willingly!"

"He'll have to let you in too," Koenma pointed out. Not that that really helped.

"Even so, it's _impossible. _Like hell I'm trusting _that_ guy," I pointed at Hiei. The fire demon had his arms crossed – I had a feeling he had stayed like that the whole time from outside the room and until now – and he was demonstratively glaring at some random document in the wall.

But even though my words were angry, my stomach began churning uncomfortably. I was reacting more on habit, than actual feelings. Hiei _had _save my life back then, and I owed him for that. And after the visit at the hospital I had even felt like we somehow had gotten a tiny bit closer. Now my stupid auto-pilot anger was ruining it all.

Biting my lip to silence myself, I stared at the floor, not sure whether I wished to kill it or sink into it.

"Fine," I muttered. "I'll give it a try."

"Good," Koenma nodded. "Hiei?"

The fire demon snorted. "With _her?" _he gave a short laugh.

"Hey, just swallow your pride for once and say you'll give it a try," I snapped. He smirked. Apparently I was the only one who thought we had gotten closer. So much for my bad conscience.

"You will remain the only one stupid enough to do that."

"What?" I glared at him. "Do you believe I'm doing this because I've started to _trust __you? _Think again Three Eyes. I'm doing this for the sake of growing stronger."

He looked at me. "If I team up with you I will become weaker rather than stronger."

My face was one big, red tomato of fuming anger.

"That's _it. _There's_no _way I'm cooperating with this guy," I pointed so rashly to Hiei that I hit him in the head. Not caring the least I left the room. Botan squealed as all the papers shook dangerously as I slammed the door shut. -Though I didn't hear it. I was too busy walking down the hallway to find someone who could make me a portal and send me home.

Turned out I couldn't find anyone in the end. So I had no choice but to return and held my head high as I pretended they were not there and jumped through the portal.

I did notice the office being back to itself though, before I returned to my own world. Sadly enough, Hiei had been dropped off at the same place as I.

And the place was not the same as the one I had left from.

"Where... the hell are we?"

In a snap I had forgotten all about being annoyed and ignoring. Hiei didn't look any wiser than I though. In addition he also looked more and more pissed at the fact that Koenma had not been able to put him -well, where ever he wanted to end up.

"Argh, you got to be kidding me!" I groaned. Looking around a little more I decided we should get moving and that sooner or later we had to end up _somewhere. _And I was double crossing my fingers for sooner. Hiei gave off the feeling of wanted the exact same thing. But hey, what do I know? Perhaps he enjoyed being lost in some random forest, and that cold and dark aura shooting out of him was just his way of being happy. Like I said; what do I know?

* * *

"I'm giving up." I slid down onto the nearest stone – which was too small to sit on so I slid further down to the cold snow covered forest ground - "I may have withstood the cruellest training ever, but even my endurance has a limit. And it's freezing cold!" I kicked up a small snow cloud, watching the damned snow flakes dance back down to the ground. And if the cold itself wasn't enough, there was another matter that was starting to get rather pressing too.

Hiei glanced at me. He looked to think it over for a second, but even he had to be tired of walking aimlessly around for so long. He hesitated a second before jumping up in the closest tree – a lot of snow almost hitting me as a result –, an action which he had repeated frequently since we got here. He stayed up in-between the branches for a minute or two before returning. He shook his head once and I sighed.

"You still can't reach Kurama or anyone either?" I asked. He shook his head again. "Too far away," he answered.

"And I who thought you were so strong and skilled."

He glared. I grinned and raised my hands. "Just kidding, just kidding." I wriggled a little in the snow, scanning our never-changing surroundings, a small groan humming through my throat. Except for that, I didn't say anything more and neither did Hiei.

"Let's go," I muttered. "Before my feet freeze to ice and fall off. -It's not funny," I glared at the fire demon and knew he turned away to hide a smirk. Normally I would have got him for that, but right now I was too cold to do anything other than walk. Besides that, this _matter_ was starting to get really urgent to. I struggled up from the snow, and must have been frowning or something, for Hiei was looking at me.

"What?" I said, a little harsher than intended, but who were to blame me? Hiei shrugged, looking away again. Okay, so he obviously knew something was bothering me, and he didn't even bother to comment on it. I stared at him. Glared. He kept on looking awa- _oh_. Guess this _was_ his comment on it.

I'll admit I had to battle an uncomfortable blush when realising he already knew what the problem was. Well, I tried to tell myself. It was not like it was anything to get all sheepish about, but still. I excused myself, saying I'd be right back, and wandered quickly off among the trees. Just too bad there were no leaves to make for a better place to hide. So instead I walked until I had obtained a fair distance between me and him before I did what all of nature's beings have to every once in a while.

Meanwhile I humoured the thought of whether or not he wouldn't have to go soon, but decided not to dwell on it as I finished, and halting a bit, stuck my hands in the snow. It was painful behind comprehension as I rubbed them against each other a little, each snow flake a tiny needle, but at least I felt a little better as I ventured back to my waiting fellow team demon.

And so we walked on, not really talking and not really looking at each other.

"We're gonna freeze to death," I commented hours later. It had grown dark, and we had found and seen nothing but snow, snow –and guess what? More snow. "And I'm gonna catch a serious cold -if I don't die first." I looked at the miserable little heap of twigs I had collected. It had been a helpless attempt in making a fire, and the few, naked branches we had sought shelter under did not provide much cover either. I shivered and froze on the little spot I had cleared of snow with blue hands earlier. Hiei stood next to me, leaning against the tree trunk without a word. He looked out through the naked fingers of the sleeping trees. None of us said anything and small, white dots began falling from the sky. Like a blanket they wrapped the already white layered world into a heavy silence. What life could survive out here?

In envy I thought of the bears and the other animals sleeping deep under our feet, warm and secure. And as I thought of them I felt even colder, wrapping my arms around myself to gather as much warmth as possible. My clothes, rather thin for the season and the sweat from the training earlier in the day, made this a real challenge. And then there was the snow. The white snow, turning blue in the dark. I stared at it. The thousands and thousands of small flakes melted together to make this thick, cold blanket covering all, putting a lid on the world.

We had tried to build a fire yes, but the time of year being winter, the wood wasn't exactly dry. Though the fire-building was after we had walked and walked and walked, and Ifinally had said we just had to face it; we wouldn't find anything or anyone, and if we wanted to survive the night we better try make some sort of heat source. Thus we had spent the last hour not looking for houses or any other sign of life, but for function fire wood.

And so Hiei had climbed the trees, and I stood underneath and caught any branch or stick he broke off and threw down. This activity had gotten me both a little warmer and wetter at the same time:

We had run –I had run, Hiei walking came after- from tree to tree, finding the ones we thought to be most suitable. Hiei climbed and I stretched my arms up, catching all the wood, and after a while this brought very welcome warmth to spread in my legs and arms. It was slight, but it was there.

Then of course Hiei had climbed a tree with a dormant squirrel in it. Neither of us aware at that time, he had found an especially dry twig, breaking it off, but in the process making enough disturbance to wake the tree-occupant. Surprised, Hiei let go of the twig, jumping to another branch. Cold as I was, and therefore not really paying proper attention, tried to catch the stray flying twig, tripped, and landed face first in the snow.

My head had popped up again with a loud gasp, and Hiei had helped pick up all the wood I had lost. He had waited as I brushed off, and with a strange sort of frown on his face he had slowly opened his mouth.

I on the other hand had grinned widely, "apology accepted," breaking him off before he even began. "Now let's make sure we don't die from the cold."

And so here we were, under a tree with a pathetic excuse for a fire at our feet.

Hiei noticed my shivering before I did. -Not that I hadn't been shivering already, but it had gotten a lot worse and I hadn't said a word of complaint for a while. It took too much energy to say anything, and my stiff lips didn't really feel like parting.

His mouth pulled a little, and a small "hn" reached my ears. I jerked startled; something fell over me. "You weak human girl," Hiei muttered. He had pushed off from the tree bending down by the miserable heap of twigs; he examined them for a second.

What had fallen over me had been his jacket-cape and scarf.

He reached a pair of strong hands out and I realized that instead of the normal upper part of his clothes he was wearing a similar style sweater. That made me smile. So even he made some changes for the winter.

Hiei muttered a few words I didn't quite catch. A few more seconds followed before a small, red flame spread across the frozen wood. Soon a warm fire gnawed at the cold twigs. In the red light spreading long shadows about us the fire demon glanced at me with his equally burning red eyes. And for a second I wondered if the fire dancing in them was really just a reflection or if it came from somewhere deep within him.

Hiei sweatdropped. "You really are pathetic," he commented. I was too cold to bite back and had to feel satisfied with a simple glare. "Not my fault I can't feel my fingers," I retorted. Hiei watched me struggle with his clothes, but no matter what I did I couldn't quite figure them out. Finally he got up with a sigh, moved over and said "Sit still or you might tear it, idiot."

I didn't answer. Just obeyed silently. And Hiei stuffed me into the jacket the proper way, finishing off with wrapping the scarf securely around my neck.

"You're being awfully nice," I commented as he pulled away to sit down. I wriggled a little closer to the dancing, warm flames, receiving an "hn" in reply from Hiei.

"If you freeze to death I will be the one to hear about it," he grumbled.

"Aw," I grinned, feeling my fingertips melting slowly. "And here I thought you cared about your new partner."

Hiei glared. Then sighed. He shook his head slowly, staring into the fire, leaving me puzzled at to what that reaction was supposed to mean. But I decided to leave it be.

"What're we gonna do if we don't find the way home tomorrow?" I yawned. Starting to feel warmth spread in my limbs and I was getting dizzy with sleep. The walking – not to mention the training from earlier – was starting to take a serious toll on my body. I yawned once more before Hiei replied.

"Either Koenma or Kurama realizes something is wrong, or we keep walking until we get back." He fed the flames with some more wood to chew on.

"I'll be hoping for the former then. And I hope it will happen fast, 'cause if this weather keeps up, the only transformation I will be able to do is into a snowman."

Hiei glanced at me as I cuddled deeper into his warm clothes. And first now, while I watched a small heap of snow melt by the fire I came to think of it, feeling stupidly guilty for not noticing before: "Won't you be cold Hiei? Now that I have your clothes?"

He hn-ed again and looked dryly at me. "Where was I born?" he asked. I didn't answer. "And besides, I am a fire demon, or have you forgotten?" he added. Those two facts added together would give him quite the resistance to snow, no doubt.

Yet I still didn't say anything.

The picture from a long ago past not belonging to me refused to disappear from inside my eyelids. The freezing cold from the memory gnawed at my bones. My toes curled up in wet socks and shoes.

"Could you make the fire bigger?" I asked quietly. And Hiei didn't point any comments at me or ask any questions. He did as I asked without a word, much unlike his usual self.

"I'm tired," I added after a few minutes of wishing I could sit in the middle of the flames. Though I had to admit that actually doing so would be too warm, even for me right now.

Hiei didn't reply to that either. Not that I expected him to anyway.

He watched as I watched the fire. He watched as my eyelids slid further and further down. He watched as I nodded sleepily. He watched as my head sunk forwards, he watched as I became heavier, he watched as sleep finally took control of my body and pushed it slowly out of balance.

And he twitched as the human girl wrapped up in his clothes tipped to the side, to sink down onto his lap. He stared for a moment at her sleeping face. His lips pressed together. Then he let out a slow breath.

"Stupid human," he muttered, throwing another twig at the fire.

* * *

"What the _hell?"_

Yusuke and Koenma jumped behind Kurama for protection. The fox demon sweatdropped with a nervous laugh. Hiei stood in the background and watched as I tried my best to kick the living daylights out of Koenma. Hiei did not plan on stopping me. Normally because that's just who he was, but this time he would very much like to second my action. Though for his image's sake he had to stay cool of course and therefore he was watching with his hands in his pockets. -Or that was my theory, anyway. Not that this was really what went through my mind as Kurama struggled to keep me off of Koenma's throat, but it would have been if I had heard the exchange of words between Hiei and Kurama after the fox in question had finally stepped out of my way.

"Hiei, she is your partner. Don't you think you should do something?" he suggested with a smile. Hiei snorted.

"For your information; snow-covered forest wandering is not one of my hobbies." A wicked smirk entered his face, widening into a grin as he watched Koenma use Yusuke as a highly protesting shield.

Kurama chuckled and Hiei watched with a pleased expression in his eyes.

What had happened thirty minutes earlier was this:

Hiei and I had awakened -or I had. He looked like he hadn't slept at all. We had walked about in the forest for another two hours (after a rather awkward moment of me staring up into his face from my place in his lap, but let's not get tangled up in the details). Then out of the blue a portal had appeared, and the two of us had jumped through it in perfect unison the very second. -Guess Hiei was just about as fed up of walking around there as I was – and on the other side we had found ourselves face to face with no other than the little baby ruler and the spirit detective with what was left of his crew as we had been missing.

Happy as I was to be back in the warmth I had thanked them for fetching us. After calming down and getting something hot to drink from Botan I had said: "My mom must be worried out of her mind."

To that Yusuke had grinned and told me that I didn't need to worry. "We told her you slept over at Kurama's place."

And that's about when I had realized the truth.

"You... you would not happen to have..." I had slowly scanned every member in the room, ending at Koenma, "...done this on purpose?" I had stared disbelievingly at the baby with his blue pacifier forever stuck between his lips.

"I did not think you and Hiei would be able to cooperate as partners right away, so I thought I would give you a little push in the right direction." Koenma had looked like he thought himself a genius. Too bad I wasn't of the same opinion.

"And you _knew_ about it?" I had stared at Yusuke.

"Well, not to begin with. We got to know it after you had been talking with Koenma. He needed us to cover for you after all."

And that's how the third world war broke out.

"I better not get a cold, or you should really be praying for your life, sucker breath!" I had glared so fiercely at Koenma that even Yusuke and Kuwabara who had currently been standing safe and sound on the sidelines had gotten scared and had backed away.

* * *

Holy heavens, that took quite some time to upload this chapter. XD Especially since this part of the story was already done (I still have some chapters left that are done before I have to really start writing again, since this is a re-upload from another site), but there were some things that needed to be changed, and then we cannot ignore the whole school-issue, now can we? But FINALLY all my exams are done :3

Anyhooooow, r&r, pretty please? :D


	5. Chapter 5

Yusuke made it up to me by paying for the ten hot chocolates I drank during our Christmas shopping.

We had all gathered, a whole of nine people, a mix of boys and girls, demons and humans, with and without powers, a Saturday morning three days after the incident. Our intention: To finish all our Christmas shopping in one day.

_Dream on, yes I know._

"Everybody has money?" I asked.

"Packed," Kuwabara's big sister assured and lit a cigarette.

"Aren't you guys overdoing it a little?" Yusuke asked, hands stuck in his pockets. "It's only Christmas presents, no need to get all-"

The detective found himself attacked by five extremely provoked girls before he could finish.

We glared at him, all five, though Yukina smiled sweetly -probably just scaring him even more. Kurama chuckled, finished the tucking of his scarf and advised the detective not to pursue the matter any further and just enjoy the day instead.

"I am certain you have someone you wish to buy presents for as well," the redhead smiled. "So this is a perfect day to get it all done."

Yusuke sighed, shook his head helplessly, then grinned and grabbed the lead and dived head first into the sea of shops waiting with all kinds of alluring offers.

What followed is that part of a TV series which would have a lot of moments shown meanwhile a song or tune played merrily in the background, as we ran and cheered our way from shop to shop -not always just looking for presents; there were more than enough sidetracks as well.

It was during one of these that Yusuke got the splendid idea of Kurama trying out the dress Keiko and I was currently obsessed with. Being the polite demon he was, he backed away with his hands smilingly lifted, and sweatdropped when Yusuke commented he would surely look nice in it.

"That could be interpreted the wrong way," I noted dryly, making Kuwabara laugh at the detective who in return whacked him hard on the head.

Shizuru came up with the ingenious idea of having Yusuke dress up too, seeing as it was his idea. Kuwabara laughed even harder and Botan threw him into the cross-dressing group too. Shizuru even tried to get Hiei in -somehow she was immune to that aura of his that would send most people running for their lives- and that's when it got dangerous.

Luckily everyone escaped alive and with all limbs intact. Hiei had been close to drawing a spare long knife –which he kept in replacement for his broken katana at the time being- he had under his coat, and hadn't it been for my jumping onto him, and nearly tackling him to the ground in the process, we would have had a major problem with the security tape and shocked sales staff.

The three other males didn't escape though, and by the time we left I had in my possession a camera full of pictures perfect for blackmailing, if need be.

I grinned widely as the three other girls and I exchanged a couple of laughing and giggling glances, watching the mumbling and frowning boys follow after us. Only Kurama had been able to shake it off, or at least he was good at hiding it if he indeed was bothered, and shook his head with a smiling sigh at the two boys with their hands glued deep in their pockets.

"Look over there," Yukina suddenly pulled at my arm. I looked in her direction and spotted a cute looking café at the end of her index finger.

"Good idea," I lit up and soon all nine of us had crossed the street and entered the café. Pushing the door open sweet air filled our noses, made our stomachs growl and wallets nervous.

"By the way," Yusuke broke off our informing Kurama of what to get. "Why is Hiei here?" The fire demon dodged the detectives questioning look. "I never thought this was your kind of thing," Yusuke grinned.

"And it isn't," Hiei replied, arms crossed firmly and an icy stare to match his voice.

"Here you go," Kurama handed everyone what they had ordered and by the time Hiei got his hands on his snack he seemed to forget about us all together, as well as Yusuke got the answer to his question.

He-and the rest of us with him- stared at the fire demon as he began to eat. Then we slowly pulled our eyes to ourselves and found a table to sit at. Yusuke snickered.

"The powers of _sweet snow."_

* * *

I got up. "Where are you going?" Yusuke looked up from his loud conversation with Kuwabara.

"Toilet," I replied. Yusuke lifted a brow questioningly as I took my half eaten gigantic chocolate bun with me. I ignored him, winked at Kurama who smiled back and I left.

Behind the curtain to the small hallway containing the door leading to the toilet, a sharp turn and a sprint through the kitchen later I escaped the premises. The outdoors felt cold after the sweetly smelling warmth of the café. I pulled my jacket closer around me, stuffed what remained of the bun into my mouth and hurried down the street. I tried to ignore all the weird looks at my bun-big cheeks, and by the time I finally finished chewing and could swallow the big lump and breathe fresh air once again, I had reached my destination.

I did what I came to do, using more time than intended and wondered what kind of explanation to give to Yusuke when I returned. _"_That was one long lasting potty break," he would say and I would need a quick answer to render him harmless.

The bags in my hands jumped up and down and here and there as I began running. My brain worked at top speed; I'm sure the people I ran past could hear the machine tick and buzz. Small clouds of snow beat up from the ground, and swirled around my heals. A small pond of ice surprised me. It sent me skidding and sliding surely several meters. If someone by some unknown reason were searching for me at that moment, they wouldn't need any advanced or special equipments: My scream reached all the way to the North Pole, scared the pole bears and back again.

"_Ah! I'm-"_ I yelped surprised as I crashed straight into something. "I'm- I'm so sorry," I gasped apologetically, looking up.

"What are you doing?"

"_Hiei?" I stared. "What are __you doing __here?"_

"That's my sentence," he replied, staring ba- _glaring _back. I stared back up into his eyes. Red, intense, yet so cold eyes. Like moons tainted red. The ice still beneath me made my stance a wobbly one, the reason to which I noticed the two strong hands holding onto both my upper arms.

"Just a small visit to the toilet, was it?"

My heart skipped a startled beat, I jerked in the direction of the voice.

Yusuke.

He grinned widely. And I snatched my hands away from Hiei's chest. I-

"Idiot," the fire demon growled condescendingly. However, when I looked up I found him smirking. The red eyes twinkled and he looked highly amused.

Well, of course I had seen his evil amusement play across his face before -when Kuwabara burned his fingers and on top of it dropped the cake, for example.

But this was different. It was almost as if-

"You okay?" Kurama offered me a hand due to my wobbly-ness. Yusuke on the other hand was too busy laughing, he didn't have enough breath to cough up the question to be expected in such a situation in-between his gasps of laughter.

I sent him a freezing glare, almost managed to shut him up, even.  
When Keiko had managed to slap Yusuke back in respectful shape, Yukina wondered what I had bought. I smiled at her.

"It's for Hiei's Christmas present."

"You're giving Three Eyes a present?" Kuwabara asked surprised.

"Why not?" I shrugged. "It's Christmas and I've got the time, so one present to or fro doesn't really make that much of a difference." I rearranged some of my bags to make it easier to carry. "Besides, he's supposed to be my partner."

"I won't give you any," Hiei said, making the entire group look at him.

"I know," I replied point blank.

Yukina smiled. "I got Hiei a present too," she said.

"Me too," Keiko added with Botan close behind. Hiei stared at them and for a second not even he could hide his shock.

"That's girls for ya," Yusuke sighed. "So soft-hearted."

"You calling me soft-hearted Yusuke?" Shizuru blew smoke rings at his face with a teasing grin. Yusuke didn't have any quick retorts to that.

"Anyway, I got you one too kid, so deal with it," Kuwabara's big sister added, swinging a plastic bag in front of the fire demon's face.

Hiei was speechless. He stared, wide eyed, at us.

"Didn't see that one coming, huh?" Yusuke commented, though that clearly went for him as well.

"What, you didn't get Hiei a present?" Keiko asked. Yusuke was suddenly very busy counting snow flakes on the ground. "What have you been doing the whole day?" Keiko's voice was getting scary. Yusuke sensed the danger stronger than anyone, but there was no escape for him now.

I watched him walk with a nervous grin and hands in pockets as he was attacked by Keiko's lecture, and from every free spot on his arms hung bags. Nine out of ten belonged to Keiko. Kuwabara, walking next to his comrade, was even more packed. He had happily offered to take Yukina's bags who thanked with a smile sending Kuwabara to heaven on pink clouds. Shizuru then meant he should carry hers as well since she was his big sister and watched him with an amused smile struggle under all the bags. She had taken two of them back, but let him carry the rest. The two heaps of bags on walking legs were accompanied by a chuckling Kurama. First now did I discover he had his hands full as well. Right after the beginning of the shopping tour he had politely offered to take care of all Botan's bags. And he carried them in addition to his own. However, true to his fox nature, he had been wise and finished a lot of his Christmas shopping early, so I hadn't bought so much himself this time. The same did not go for Botan.

Even so, the elegant fox demon made the tons of bags look like nothing and like a much smaller and of a more modest size. What else to be expected of the redhead?

I took a few long steps to keep up with the others and grimaced at the pain in my strained hands and wrists under the weight of my own bags. I shot a brief stare at Hiei. Blaming him a little. I knew as well as anybody he would never ever, ever offer to carry anyone's bags. Even so, I still felt a little envious of the four other girls.

With a sigh I had to run to catch up with them, looking forward to coming home and a warm, soothing foot bath.

* * *

I didn't get home. But I did get a foot bath, and a probably much nicer one than I could ever have pulled off: Kurama had made it for me. Therefore it also had a calming, sweet aroma rising from it.

We were at the fox' place. His mother was out, and he had just finished preparing tea and cookies for everyone. After that, and a while of chatting, Keiko stumbled across a chess board on her way to the toilet. Thus the boys watched us play on the white and black board in turns, frequently playing with us.

In the end Kuwabara challenged Yusuke to a match. The orange haired goof actually managed to put up a decent resistance, but Yusuke won after a short battle and of course felt the need to rub it in afterward.

He was safe in the victory spot all until he -still in champion mode- uttered the words: "No one can beat me in chess, I'm just that good," with a satisfied grin. Kurama smiled and with light-hearted words challenged him.

Yusuke had stepped dead on a land mine. And even with his talking skills he couldn't get himself out of this one.

"You're such a coward," Kuwabara snickered.

"Would you perhaps like to switch?" Yusuke snapped back, but had to sit down by the square patterned board again. The detective fought bravely, but needless to say the fox beat him and made it look like child's play at that. The four girls and I teamed up with the two boys, but even with the seven of us we couldn't beat the master mind. "Don't look so pleased," Yusuke complained.

"I'm not," the redhead replied and we all knew he lied.

"Come play with us, Hiei!" Botan abruptly exclaimed.

"That's right," Yusuke turned to the glaring fire demon. "You're the only one who hasn't given the game a go yet," he grinned.

"I have no interest in your stupid human games," Hiei growled back.

"Right, I forgot," Yusuke sighed in defeat -however, the spirit detective's _eyes_ were quickly searching for a way or object in the room to force the stubborn miniature demon to play.

"Either you play, or Fai will dance naked for you," Yusuke suddenly said.

"_What?" _I exclaimed, jumping in my seat at his words. "That's evil, you're making it sound like a bad thing!"

"What's up with him?" Kuwabara broke in, staring at Hiei.  
The demon in question was already getting seated by the opposite side of Yusuke by the time I said my last line.

"Hey! You guys're so _evil,"_ I pointed an angrily blaming finger at the two of them -mostly the fire demon. He didn't even bother to glance at me.

"What? Did you _want _to dance for him?" Yusuke sniggered.

I sent him a death glare, trying to suppress a certain burning feeling in my cheeks. "No," I snapped in annoyed protest. "But it's just-!"

"Right," Yusuke pulled at the "i", breaking me off, and watching my beat red cheeks with amusement he broke out laughing.

I glared at him and Hiei in turns, and wanted to glare at myself too for being so contradicting, and letting him get under my skin that easily.

Yusuke's laughter had reduced to his trademark snickering.

A few bloody daggers in the detective's back later I wanted to stomp out of the room and slam the door off it hinges. But I didn't. For once my after-wisdom-voice spoke before I did what I shouldn't. You know, that voice that always says "you shouldn't have done that" or "you should have said or done that or that instead of that" when it's already too late. So I had to make do with taking a seat in Hiei's window sill.

-Besides, normally, storming out of a room after that kind of scene would only give birth to an awkward silence, pauses and glances when finally deciding to return.

So therefore I was forcing myself to ease down sitting in the window, staring out at the dark night sky, ignoring the others to the best of my skill. –Knowing very well Hiei was most likely staring, if not glaring, at me out of the corner of his eye for stealing his sill. Too bad for him.

"Then let's start, Hiei," Yusuke said. Finally recovered from his snickering, I noticed.

"Go easy on him Yusuke, tactic is not one of Hiei's strongest suits," Kurama said, a small but sly smile hid somewhere in his gentle voice.

"Do you _wish _to loose that precious voice box of yours?" Hiei growled. He really did growl a lot. When I thought about it, he rarely did anything else._Wonder if his throat ever hurt from all that growling? _

"Well, tactics are not one of Yusuke's strongest sides either," Kuwabara answered.

"_Hey! _At least my tactic skills are better than yours," Yusuke protested.

"_Oh yeah_?" Kuwabara was most likely puffing up his chest at the shouting detective.

"Who won when you and I w-" Yusuke began.

"Then this should be an interesting game," Kurama said as, breaking the two off.

* * *

As a "follow-uper" after the check-match (with a rather annoyed loser almost setting fire to the briefing victorious one) we picked up on training again.

And even though I know I have spoken of their training methods before as cruel, cold hearted, evil, inhumane, grotesque and straight down murderous, I take it all back: What they put me through now was way worse than anything I had gone through before.

Even so, they still let me take some small breaks to bake gingerbread men every once in a while. -Might have had something to do with Kuwabara and Yusuke who enjoyed eating them all up before they even made it to the Christmas-biscuit box. And somehow, even if I tried to point out how unimportant that was compared to the training ("you're the ones who want me train this often, remember?") they manage to make it sound like a matter if life or death baking those gingerbread men.

We were also forced to take some breaks due to the up-coming Christmas exams, and as promised Kurama helped me out with the studying.

And in-between all the training, the baking and the reading –and few hours of sleeping- Christmas and Christmas' eve closed in on us with surprisingly quick steps. I couldn't remember a single winter where December had passed by that quickly before.

How I squeezed in time for school in-between it all, I do not know –I didn't even have time to wrap in all the presents I had bought – . Even how I made it to the classroom in the morning was a mystery to me most of the time. I rarely left my seat during breaks, ignoring the weird glances I got for staying in the classroom, giving over to sleep those few extra minutes I had.

"Hey, Fai? Are you okay?" Ichigo sat down next to my desk. She looked worried, staring into my tired face. I smiled back up at her. Or I tried to. Or I think I tried to. I could see the others watch us from a few feet's distance, most likely not to over-crowd what must have looked like a half unconscious, ready to collapse, Fai.

Someone put a hand on my shoulder. Turning around I saw Maka bend over me. "You haven't been yourself lately," she pointed out and Sakura broke in, saying it as it was:

"You look like a half dead rat and if you don't do anything soon, your face will be nothing but big, blue eye-bags." Ichigo and several with her stared annoyed at our pretty friend. But she ignored them, knowing I didn't mind her way of showing concern anyway.

"Why, thank you," I still said sarcastically with a lopsided grin.

"What have you been doing lately?" Maka asked. I shrugged.

"Exam preparations," I said. It wasn't a lie. Not entirely. I just didn't tell the whole truth. There's a big difference there. Big. It's one of my principles to lie as rarely as possible. –I gravely fail most of the time, but well, I get points for trying, no?

Maka sighed. "I see. Well, let's just hope you get a good grade then, so all your hard work doesn't go to a waste."

But just then the unnecessarily loud bell shred to threads any conversation going on, and scarily on time –as always – our history teacher entered the room to begin the last lesson of the day. And history being true to the subject it was… that I managed to stay awake was a true work of art and nothing less than a miracle. Nevertheless I must have been on the brink at some point for a sudden sound sent me in a sky high jump almost across half the room.

_"__Get down here." _

The sound that was not a sound, but rather in my head made me jerk in surprise. -Or as anyone else is the classroom would say it; more like "jump across half the room, tip my chair, and tumble a few steps in the process due to my foot getting caught in the chair" in surprise. It was just barely I kept from exclaiming "Hiei?" out loud on top of it all.

Maka, who sat closest, sent me a sideways lifted-eyebrow-glance.

"Is there something wrong… Miss Fai?" Mr. History teacher's oh-so calm calmness just barely fooled everyone. However, all could see the invisible steam escaping his ears and nostrils; the bomb was set to explode at any moment now for this most rude interruption.

I had to tread carefully, watch my every step and word did I want to escape my doom and leave unscathed from this, with all limbs intact. And right then and there, staring up at my teacher there was not a doubt in my mind that no demon could ever compare to this human being.

Well, except from perhaps Hiei. And being of the not very patient kind, and therefore a constant distraction for my concentration he made it all a lot more difficult than it already was.

I threw a glance at the watch above the door. Fifteen minutes.

_Can't you wait fifteen minutes? _I wondered. I could just as well have asked the express train to Hong Kong to wait for my tip-tip grand mother in law to get out of bed. And before I could even get close to the door my doom fell heavily upon me:

Detention.

* * *

I cursed the very day I got to know Hiei, watching all the others leave the classroom in a hurry. And some of them, sending me small, pitying or grinning glances, didn't make it any better.

When the door finally slid to a close behind them, I reluctantly turned my eyes to the teacher. He, on the other hand, stood calmly by the blackboard, most likely grinning behind the lifted history book; I know I caught a glimpse of pure joyfulness over my misery in his eyes. -But only for a second. Then he pushed his glasses up and preceded to hand me a dozen sheets and tasks and whatnot that I knew we hadn't been working on during class, and after five minutes he declared he was going for a cup coffee.

I was perfectly aware that this was one of his trademark tricks. He would leave the classroom, then stand outside or be in the classroom on the opposite side of the corridor with the door open. But I had no plan of walking right into his trap, and wisely I stayed in the classroom. Not like I had any other choice anyway; there was no other way out of this room on the third floor except the door.

I sighed, muttering to myself as I grabbed one of the sheets. "Just look what you got me in now, you dim-witted fire d-"

"What?"

My chair crashed to the floor for the second time that day. Hiei sat in the window sill next to my seat. He looked at me, the blackboard, the door, the tower of sheets on my desk.

"What are you doing?" he asked rudely mostly toward the heap of paper.

"What does it look like?" I grumbled in reply as I motioned to pick up my poor chair. Before I got that far, Hiei put the sheets afire.

The red, hot burning air ate away at my punishment, and I could just stare. This was a hallucination for sure. How funny, hallucinating and being aware of it at the same time. _And if I reach out to touch the sheets now, nothing will happen to me._

I didn't reach out, and as I finally got to the step of which in an incident like this one yells at the guilty one, I found myself too shocked, surprised and stunned to scream.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" I hissed hoarsely.

"We need to leave, and those things were keeping you here," he explained simply and – if I'm not mistaken – a little annoyed. But who the hell was _he_ to be annoyed?

"You can't deal with school work the same way you deal with enemy demons," I wheezed at him and hissed with pain as I tried to put out the fire with my bare hands.

Hiei hn-ed as I succeeded in putting out the small fire –and without too much damage to the desk at that. _Hurray. _Even so, there were still some burns visible here and there and I stared at them as shivers ran down my spine imagining the consequences.

"I'm seriously gonna kill you, Hiei." I said dead-pan serious. And he had better believed it, for his own sake. Roaming the room with my eyes I looked for a solution. And found one: I swapped mine and one of the guys' desks, deciding not to think of the consequences it would bring for him, being both desperate and annoyed already anyways I needed some kind of outlet –however odd or beside the point it might have been.

Even so, my heart still pounded away at the thought of my own consequences; shoving desks all over the place was not one of the most silent things to be doing in a classroom meant for detention to be going on.

Glancing at the door every third second I gritted my teeth and knew I'd stay true to my threat. Nevertheless, I got through it all and could slide back down on my chair with a relieved exhale.

"Are you done?" Hiei asked. I turned around to give him a real piece of my mind after unnecessarily putting me through all of this, but Hiei was faster: "Now let's go," he growled.

"Go where? My teacher's guarding the door."

Hiei lost his normal glare for a second to stare completely baffled at me. And it would have been funny was it at another time, another place.

"Stupid human," the fire demon rolled his eyes, tapping the glass.

"Oh." I looked out the window and down at the ground three storeys down. My stomach twisted a little at the thought of jumping down. "I think Kurama scheduled the 'jumping down from third floor'-training for next week. I've only done the 'jumping from the second floor' part."

"This is why I say humans are weak," Hiei snorted and I would have hit him real hard for it, had it not been for a sound at the door right at that moment and the unmistaken voice of my teacher talking to someone. I grimaced painfully.

"Look," Hiei sounded suddenly a lot more serious. "Do you _want to stay here?"_

I shook my head, and that was the only thing I had time to do. In the next second the world was upside-down and blood poured to my head and when all I saw was asphalt some several feet away I wanted to scream -however, the strong air resistance choked away any attempt at that.

Hiei landed lightly on the ground and kicked off; moving faster than the average human eye could ever hope to keep up with. I dangled as a useless sack on his back.

"You know," I said when I had managed to get a firm grip of his shoulders and could tell left from right and up from down again. "You never quite were the saviour type of guy."

"And never will be," he retorted, but the air thudded so loudly in my ears I couldn't tell in what manner he spoke. "I don't like the kind that 'rises to the occasion' when someone's in trouble," the demon added.

"In other words: you don't like Yusuke and the others with a good head on their shoulders," I commented. "Well, how 'right' that head is, can be discussed," I added after a short pause.

And for the first time, Hiei hn-ed a short laugh in my head.

The wind hissed and howled in my ears as we headed toward Kurama's house. Or at least that's were I suspected we were off to in such a hurry. After all, we rarely met up anywhere else (by some strange reason), and I could not imagine Hiei whisking me away from the classroom window on his own accord. So the rest of the ride I spent contemplating what could be the problem now, for a meeting to be called together.

Hiei went in for landing again, ran across a roof and jumped off the edge. I could feel his muscular arm tighten its firm grip around my thighs as he kicked off.

* * *

«Mind your head.»

«Wh-?»

A wall. It appeared without warning. I didn't have time to even gasp before my head banged straight into i… …t? There was no pain. Had the demons' training made my skin strong as armour?

"Idiot."

I opened the eyes I had closed without noticing. Hiei looked back down at me. An eyebrow lifted, a smirk hidden in the corner of his mouth. He must have swung me down from his back in the last second before I ended up as a squashed bug against the white wood framing the window.

"You..." I said slowly, realising he had actually taken consideration of my well-being.

"If you had lost any more brain cells you would not be smart enough to understand everyday speech," Hiei cut me short. My brain had been programmed on saying "thank you" and I was already half smiling. Then his words broke through and my expression froze. For a second or two I wasn't sure of what to do, but then I glared at him and snorted offended. It didn't help to realise that the small smirk was still hang lightly on his lips.

"What?" I grumbled.

"You are allowed to let go, human," he replied.

That's when I noticed I was clinging onto his black clothes. The fire demon cocked an eyebrow at me. And that's when I fumbled to let go, found no floor to step on, fell and hit the floor seriously hard. And first then did I also realize I had been in his arms and from a fall all the way up from the window sill it was no wonder my head felt like it had been split in two.

From a doorway on the other side of the room someone laughed. And _that was when I killed Yusuke Urameshi once and for all._

* * *

Kurama served tea. On the other side of the table Yusuke kept a sharp eye with me. It seemed like I had actually really scared him for a change. And it had resulted in him being a little more quiet than usual, so I was as happy as could be. Though I suspect I would have been feeling even better if Kurama had not felt it to be his duty to patch Yusuke back up in shape after I was done with him.

"So, what's happened? Is a powerful demon lose on a rampage, the spirit realm palace under heavy attack or what?" I blew the steam off my tea and looked expectantly from Yusuke to Kurama. The two boys in turn lifted their eyebrows questioningly.

"I am not quite sure I know what you mean," Kurama said slowly, seating himself.

"Well, Hiei seemed in a hurry to get me… here?" by the time I reached the last part of my sentence I was suddenly not so sure of what I was saying anymore. No one looked to be in any particular hurry or worry. And glancing at the fire demon I finally realised it had not been the gathering of the spirit world top gang that was important; but that staying outside my school in longer portions of time was something he absolutely refused to do.

I groaned. Kurama had probably just sent him to fetch me after school for a spirit-un-related pre-Christmas evening.

Kuwabara tipped his teacup just then and getting up with a squeal I quickly offered to go get some paper towels from the kitchen. Kurama thanked, trying to save the table cloth. Walking past Hiei I let my opinion slip: "you could have just slept in a tree or something until I was done. Never seem to bother you at other times" and disappeared into the kitchen. Hiei had completely ignored me, of course.

"Well," Kurama said upon my return and I handed him some towels. "-thank you- there is actually _something_ I would like to ask you." He dried off the bottom of the teacups that had been so unfortunate to have been standing near Kuwabara's, before putting them down again. "Would you like to celebrate Christmas' eve with us?"

I blinked surprised. By unknown reasons I was dumbstruck for two seconds. Then- "Sure, why wouldn't I? That'd be great!"

"Good," the fox smiled. "Then that is settled. I hope your family won't mind-"

"I'm sure they won't."

"-then we will all gather here then. My mother and her husband, as well as my brother, will be out eating dinner and decided to celebrate with a couple of friends-"

"So we will have the place all to ourselves!"

"-very correct Yusuke, and-"

"Could we have a sleep over?" I suggested. Poor Kurama never got to finish his sentences. Yusuke and Kuwabara looked like they liked the sound of my idea quite a lot by the way they lit up.

Kurama gave up trying to finish whatever he was saying, smiled and nodded. "Yes, why not."

And thus this year's Christmas picked up to be the best one yet. So when Kurama asked if we'd like to stay for dinner I was the first to eagerly say yes; with Yusuke and Kuwabara hot on my tail. As the fox looked at the too boys one could practically see his delicate brain spin to calculate how much more food would be needed to satisfy their gluttony. Seconds later he must have found the answer for he got up and headed for the kitchen.

"Where're you going?" Kuwabara wondered across his teacup.

"To prepare dinner," Kurama answered. "Fai, perhaps you would be so kind and go down in the store for me?" He scribbled something on a note. Following he surprised us all by folding it and sending the note as a paper airplane before disappearing into the kitchen.

The airplane landed neatly in my hands.

"You got to hand it to him; he got _skills,"_ Yusuke said, whistling a long, low tone.

"No kidding, what a show off," I grinned and grabbed my jacket, scarf and Yusuke's ear and marched out of the house; I needed some carry-power. -All the while the detective in question protesting loudly.

First when we got everything we needed and was on the way back did Yusuke feel it fit to blurt out something I had long forgotten and he obviously just came to think of; "Why are you so cheerful anyways? Aren't your exams starting in two days?"

He could just as well have stuffed my head in the snow and left me there to die.

* * *

"You need to calm down," Yusuke sighed, throwing a tennis ball to the wall and catching it as it bounced back. He was lying upside-down on the couch with his legs over the back of it, throwing a glance at me every now and then; Kurama had been generous enough to borrow me his books.

Yes, I had already red on this. Yes, Kurama and I had already been through this a thousand times. And yes, a few days ago I had felt like it was not all entirely impossible- everything taken into consideration (training and what-not). Yet forgetting and being suddenly reminded had made my mind go blank. And upon realizing so I had panicked. _And_ would have known that would not help by the least- had I not been beyond all help already.

Yusuke heaved around on the couch. "Hey, Kuwabara," he said, arms dangling down and leaning on the floor. "Didn't Kurama say something about having Ludo upstairs?"

"Ludo?" Kuwabara said surprised. Yusuke got up.

"Yeah. C'mon, let's play a round. I bet you five lunches I'll beat you." Kuwabara was immediately encouraged.

"Ludo? Wait a minute, you can't plan your way to victory in Ludo. It's all chance," I tried to remind the so victory-sure detective. Yusuke and Kuwabara didn't seem to be listening. "And chance has always been Kuwabara's talents more than yours… -And when did you become such fans of Ludo?" I added in a confused hurry as they were about to leave.

"I'm not, but anything beats watching you freak out," Yusuke grinned, stuck his tongue out and disappeared before I could bite a mark in what he said.

"Hey!" By the time I finally did get up one could already hear the battle starting above. "That's not nice, Yusuke," I complained even if he couldn't hear me. "Yusuke!" I harped on just for the hell of it. I was already feeling depressed, so who was there to stop me? Though by the time I reached the doorway I discovered there indeed was someone there to stop me; someone had grabbed my wrist. Bending it around and up I was stopped dead in my tracks.

"Calm down."

Hiei's low, growling voice. His breath tickled my ear. He had a thing with opposing my inner opinions. His other arm slid around my neck, forcing my back against him.

"It's annoying even having to listen to you, so quit it." A short pause. I could feel the muscles in his chest and shoulders move has he bent even closer. "And besides," he said slowly, as if not sure whether to say it or not. Perhaps he had decided against it. He didn't say anything for another short moment. His arm tightened a little around my neck. Not good. To top it all off, my heart had went racing on for unknown reasons. My back felt all warm and sensitive. His breath brushing along the nape of my neck, his clothes, his muscles, his warmth. His eyes could stare so coldly, yet his body was so warm.

-I stumbled a few steps, having to grab the doorway so I wouldn't stumble straight into it. Hiei had abruptly pushed me away. With a snort he looked down at me (after all, he was taller than me, by a tiny bit).

"Besides," he said again, the all too familiar annoyed, cold tone back in his voice. "If Kurama thought you wouldn't be able to handle-" there he halted for a second "-that _exam, _then he would have taken more time off to teach you." His eyes narrowed slightly and he turned away. "Really, still after all he did for you; you don't even have that much fate in him. Humans," he scoffed.

However, even before he reached back to the precious window sill and the chance to sit down and enjoy his newly acquired peace and quiet there was a terrible racked by the top of the stairs: The next second Yusuke and Kuwabara came thundering down them.

"You cheated! I saw you!" Kuwabara howled, pointed an accusing finger, stumbled, and avoided a wall by an inch. Yusuke just laughed.

"Where's your proof? You're just angry because I can beat you at whatever I want." He dodged a couch pillow, jumped across a chair and sped off in direction of the kitchen. Halting briefly in the doorway he looked back. "Chess, Ludo, combat, you name it, I can beat you blindfolded," he grinned. Kuwabara let out a roar and galloped after him. The kitchen door slammed close after them with such force I could feel it in the floor.

Then: "Yusuke, what- Kuwabar! Please, stop th- Oh _stop it!"_

Mere seconds later Yusuke and Kuwabara came flying. Kurama's head popped out the door after them. "I am trying to cook, so please do excuse my rude dismissal," he smiled charmingly. The kitchen door slammed shut for the second time in less than three minutes. And for a second the two morons at the floor forgot their quarrel looking at it.

But then Kuwabara hurled around and proceeded to body-slam the unprepared Yusuke into the floor. There was really just no end to it. Hiei glared with bloodthirsty eyes as they continued loudly around and around the living room.

Unfortunately for Kuwabara he didn't notice the eyes watching them, or Yusuke and his exact location in the living room, and came to knock Hiei down from the sill. Entirely by accident of course, but that was never a good enough excuse for Hiei. With anger fuming as a dark cloud around him he walked after the goofs who scared sprinted off toward the stairs.

I watched them, still standing by the doorway where Hiei had left me some minutes earlier. Slowly shaking my head I went back to the books. But I never sat down, for in the last moment I turned to the kitchen door instead.

I hesitated; didn't want him to mistake me for one of the others. Then I pushed the door open ever so gently and peeked in. "Do you need any help?"

"No, I'm fine, don't worry," the fox looked up from the several kettles and pans boiling on the oven and smiled.

I was about to turn back when I came to think of something else. "Hey, Kurama?" I poked my head back in the kitchen door.

"Yes?" He replied, mixing something in one of the pans.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked, taking a step into the room. Who else to ask than him, right?

"Of course," he sent me a quick, warm smile. Luckily I had developed some sort of resistance through the weeks I had known him, so I was not melting on the floor like so many others I knew would have.

"When someone has one arm tightly around your neck so your back is forced against them, does it count as a hug?" Kurama turned away completely from his kettles to look at me. His green orbs glinted in surprise mixed with a certain amusement.

"As long as it wasn't and enemy, I suppose," he said. "Why?"

"Does it still count if that person uses their free hand to have one of your arms bent behind your back and up to the point where it hurts so much you can't move?" I continued. Kurama's red eyebrows lifted curiously.

"Well, I suppose that depends on the person and whether or not that special someone intended to, or broke your arm." He finished with a smile.

"Right," I said, did a slow 180 degree turn on the spot and walked away.

Pausing one second outside the now closed kitchen door I couldn't help but wonder. What exactly did he mean "depends on the person?" With a drop of the shoulders I realized asking him hadn't helped anything at all. _What kind of person is Hiei anyhow? _

Flopping down by the books I shot a glance toward the stairs. Hiei was returning and there was no sound to hear from the floor above. Shaking my head a little I had to feel slightly sorry for them. I glanced at the fire demon again and stiffened. _"calm down" _he had said_. __"If Kurama thought you wouldn't be able to handle that exam, then he would have taken more time off to teach you." _My eyes widened.

Had he actually tried –in his own, awkward way- tried to comfort me?

* * *

Haha, that sure took some times before I got around to update. x) Anyhooo, I'll follow the tradition of so many other authors here at ff and say "reviews are love", so go do your thing ;D


	6. Exams' extra

The exams. Plural. _Exams._ That's hell written in plural right there. And I glared at it. Took my time to make sure each and every one of those letters received my hate properly, as they stood there, painting out the dreadful word in blue Arial letters to the computer screen's white background. The teachers had made painfully sure no student had any chance of forgetting: Each and every morning those two weeks before Christmas the big information screen in the entrance hall of the school shone down upon us, probably thanking its lucky star it hang out of our reach high up on the wall.

However, I don't think Kurama was just as happy. It might just have been a hunch from my side, but Hiei insisted on telling me every other day that my complaining, moaning, lamenting and frequent utter rage-outbreaks put even the calm fox' patience on a test. Though _honestly_, I had _no idea_ what he was talking about.


	7. Chapter 7

"Read it and weep," I grinned, shoving the splendid sheet of paper in a green detectives face. And for a change it was not his clothes that were green -he was as a matter of fact dressed quite nicely, but that's beside the point.

I stood, feet planted wide, in the door opening. Of course arms crossed over my chest, not to mention the triumphant smile gracing my lips. I was feeling strangely good this day, and that had _nothing _to do with my new, decently high heeled shoes my mum had been feeling generous enough to by me on a whim. She was probably just as pleased as me with my school results.

Nevertheless, our quick-witted detective only lost face for a few seconds. A smug smirk crept onto his face.

"Hard to believe you are the same girl who had such problems calming down, and wept her sweet nose red and blue not all too long ago."

"I wasn't crying," I snatched the sheet listing all my exams' grades from his hands. "_You're _just jealous because someone here is actually able of getting better than a D - in their "best subject" even." Indeed the rumours of _his_ grades had not passed me by, even after he had worked so hard as to not bring any attention to the matter these past two weeks.

And following, this called for a ten minutes hunt around the living room with a quite a few offending remark blows, and attempts to trip the other -which in the end only ended with two supposedly nicely dressed teenagers now with hair poking in all directions, red faces and panting breaths. The female one, if possible, redder than the male.

"Mind if I have a look?" Kurama picked the sheet from my hand at my nod and looked it over. "This is not bad," he smiled after a short while. "Not bad at all. Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"Mind helping me, Hiei? As these two appear a little immobilized at the moment," he gave back my grade's sheet and motioned toward the kitchen with a smile. The fire demon sent us a glare of this being all our faults from behind us, and true to his ability; even though we couldn't _see_ him, our necks _felt_ more than enough, hairs standing on an end.

"I can help you," Kuwabara pointed to himself. "What do you need?"

"Thanks. The food should be ready just about now so if you don't mind fetching it from the kitchen, I'll be right back."

"Sure," Kuwabara goofed happy to be of help and as Kurama went up stairs to do- well, whatever it might've been, while Kuwabara set sails for the kitchen and I wondered briefly if the food would even make it to the dinner table. From Yusuke's pained expression I had a feeling he was dwelling on the same thought.

However, the kettles made it all the way out into the living room in one piece and Yusuke could again return his attention to me.

"You look a little out of stamina," he said. "Have you gained on weight?"

I scowled. "Isn't that a pathetic try to get some payback. It's the _shoes._" Believe it or not, but the art of high-heeled walking is not mastered in a day.

"Yeah, yeah sure," Yusuke grinned.

Kurama must have finished whatever he was doing, for he had joined us once again.

"Though I must say Kurama, you really have gone all out. I'd normally order a pizza and be done with it," Yusuke turned from me, and eyed the red table cloth, the white candle lights, the paper snowflakes hanging from the roof, the perfectly decorated tree, and the food which smelled –and looked- so delicious it hurt.

"But I'm really glad I'm celebratin' with you guys this year." Yusuke, his fatigue long gone, nearly tackled the closest chair to the floor as he monopolized the spot as his. Kurama smiled with a shake of his head, before he turned to me.

"Shall we sit down then, before Yusuke eats it all by himself?"

"Agreed a hundred times," I said.

Without thinking it over I had grabbed Hiei by the collar and more or less yanked him across the sofa. It all happened too fast for him to react and a puzzled Hiei with one shoulder sloping down in a moment of discomposure sat next to me by the table. However, he was soon the same glaring, cross-armed, foul looking demon again so no one was worried.

"M- By the way Kurama," Yusuke said through a mouth full. "Why you got mistletoe hanging in that door frame?"

* * *

"You know, it's not like it's gonna burn you or anything," I pointed out as Kuwabara jumped through the doorframe. He looked half scared to death when he realised Yusuke was accidentally not all too far away from him, currently licking his plate clean.

"Well, I just don't wanna end up under here with the wrong person," he protested. _Indeedy,_ Botan and I exchanged a grinning glance. Right now, Yukina was in the kitchen helping Kurama out, after all.

The other girls had come after we had finished dinner. Botan and Yukina had seemingly had something to sort out in the spirit world and Keiko's family had wanted her to eat dinner with them. But now Shizuru was the only one missing.

"Oh man, I've been waiting _forever_," Yusuke jumped up for the second time that day: Kurama and Yukina had exited the kitchen and carried Yusuke's lover in their hands.

"Someone hold him!" Botan shrieked. "Or else we won't get any! Go, Fai," she ordered.

"Yes, ma'am," and I was over Yusuke before he could say _"cake"_.

"Can you two never do anything else than fight?" Kuwabara hovered over us, poking at the back of Yusuke's head. "You look like two sweet lovebirds," he teased goofily. The detective's eyebrow twitched. Once, twice- and I was free to sit at the table.

"Oh my, this is delicious Kurama," Botan commented.

"And it is such a beautiful day," I added, ducking away from a book thrown from behind, and smiled cheerfully. Kurama coughed. "I am glad you like it," he said and attempted a smile as an arm, a random leg and shortly after Yusuke's head poked up and disappeared out of view under the table, stumbled through some chairs and out on the floor again. Not even cake could stop them now, not even-

They stopped, dead in their tracks. -Which was quite a sight as they were in the middle of choking each other and so limbs were poking in all kinds of weird directions. The two boys had stopped inches away from the door frame to the hallway. The mistletoe shook ever so slightly.

Quietly and quickly Yusuke and Kuwabara got off each other. Yusuke coughed. "It smells delicious, care to join me old friend?"

"It'd be an honour." And side by side they sat down by the table.

"Merry Christmas kiddos, what have I missed?"

"Shizuru," Yukina lit up, turning toward the door.

After that it felt like nothing could put an end to the good mood. Shizuru added her donation of Christmas presents to the already all too huge pile to fit under the tree and Yusuke would never shut up wondering when we were going to open them. Botan started a game of limbo which -after a lot of laughter, music and tripping- Kurama won. Hiei had of course not participated and just smirked at me when I commented he probably could have won since he was so small, attempting to annoy him. "Then what about you?" he just said as I had been the first to go, and my only offence was a small pout and a mumble in the lines of "it's the shoes" though I doubt he heard me. Yusuke and Kuwabara also managed to end up in an eating contest where they had to pull out the vacuum cleaner afterwards, which should speak loudly enough on its own of how messy they could get.

All the while Kuwabara was walking a scary lot close to the door to the hallway. His scare for the little plant must have been miraculously cured. Granted, he only did so when Yukina was around of course, which me and the other girls couldn't help grinning at each other about. Especially when Hiei was close to killing him once and only Kurama was able to discreetly hold him back.

And then, finally, after everyone had had their fill of food and cake and what-not Kurama had seemingly magically brought to the table, and felt like they had pained Yusuke long enough with the waiting -and were on the brim of losing patience themselves- Botan announced that it was time to open the presents.

Never before had it been witnessed how fast eight people -not counting Hiei of course- could move from being chit-chatteringly spread throughout a room to sit excitedly by a tree.

By the door the mistletoe waited patiently.

"We'll take it one by one, right?" Botan said.

"_What_?" Kuwabara and Yusuke groaned in unison.

"Hey," Keiko put them in place with one, strict word.

"She's right guys," I grinned. "It's a lot nicer to open and see properly what each and everyone got."

"Aw, man," Yusuke sighed but gave it up as he and Kuwabara was a clear minority.

It took us good and well two hours to open the presents from each other, all the while sending the presents around for everyone to see, and comparing with one another.

I stared at Hiei. He had been forced to leave his beloved window sill to open the presents for him -even though he had protested first for a while. He was at the last present. A soft package in blue and white snow crystal wrappings. He opened the tapes and rolled it out. On the floor in front of him, sliding out of the paper, a knitted scarf landed softly. Hiei blinked surprised looking at it. Then;

"I already have a scarf."

"I know," I said. "But it's not of wool right? I just thought the winter nights could get really chilly sometimes, so," I shrugged. Botan reached over to rub it between thumb and index finger. "It's really soft," she noted surprised. "Is it really wool?"

I nodded.

Hiei motioned to get up.

"Where are you going?" Kuwabara wondered. Hiei glanced at him.

"I've played your game of "Christmas", now I am going to attend some business of my own."

"Without trying the scarf?" Yukina asked, looking at the soft heap on the floor. Botan grabbed it and got on her feet before Hiei had gotten the chance to get up. "That's mean," she said. "You could at least try it on," and she held it toward him. He looked at it. For a moment it even looked like he was going to do as she said. But then he scowled at her and with voice as cold as the snow falling outside he said: "And why should I?"

Botan was at a loss of words, and Hiei used those few seconds to turn away and head for the hallway and the exit door.

The mistletoe hung peacefully.

"Come on, Hiei," Botan followed hot on his tail. "Now you are just being rude. She made it by ha-"

"And why should I care?" Hiei spun around, grabbed her by the wrist and for a second it looked like he would snap it. "It's not like I asked her to make it." He let go, turned around and escaped to the hallway. Botan followed after a short halt in front of the door way. The mistletoe billowed slightly in a non-existing breeze.

"But you could at least try it on," she carried on. Hiei merely growled in reply.

"Botan, it's nothing. It's not like I expected him to sky-rocket with happiness either," I tried to ease the situation from my position in the living room.

"You know kid," Shizuru said, seated on the couch with presents and wrappings everywhere. "I'm surprised at how much you take from that guy. He is supposed to be your partner after all." She got up and went over to the window to blow out a stream of smoke. "Just a thought," she shrugged, tapping the glowing end off her smoke.

"She's right," Kuwabara balled a fist. So long as Hiei was occupied by Botan he obviously dared to speak his mind more freely than otherwise. "You should tell him."

"But it's not that easy," I rolled my eyes. "It's not like I can force him to be friendly. And really, he is not all that bad-" I wavered between staying to clear it up or follow after Botan to make sure she didn't get killed. I took a few steps, halted, then a few more steps.

The mistletoe hung innocently in the door way.

"Yeah," Yusuke snickered. "He'd just like to put fire to that scarf," flicked a cookie into the air and caught it with his mouth. "Sweet as honey pie, our Three Eyes," he grinned.

I took two steps backward in direction of the hallway, subconsciously still not decided on where I was going.

"I suppose," I smiled wryly.

"Just a little bit Hiei," Botan was starting to get annoyed, which was a daring thing to be with Hiei. The fire demon in question sent her a knockout glare -that didn't seem to have any effect- and jumped out of the way of her try to force it on him.

"She made it by hand. You could at least try to look happy," Kurama noted as he walked past to return the vacuum cleaner from earlier back up stairs.

"You see?" Botan tilted her hips reproachfully. Hiei tried to ignore her, heading for the door. She got in his way and again he stepped back; away from her.

"Are you okay?" Yukina wondered gently. I shook my head without understanding. "Yeah, why shouldn't I?" subconsciously moving closer to the hallway.

"Really, don't you think you're over-reacting? Even for you?" Botan said. "Well look whose fault it is," Hiei threw back.

The mistletoe shook slightly.

"It must have taken a while to knit it," Yukina said silently. Yusuke sat up a little. "Yeah," Kuwabara said goofily thoughtful. "I'll take it though," he added. "Thanks, but it's okay," I tried to ease.

"Come _on_, Hiei!"

"Then again it is Hiei we're talking about," Yusuke sighed.

"Hiei, are you still protesting?" Kurama had returned. "This _is _starting to get a little ridiculous, even for you."

"Fai, you know you could stand t-"

"Really, try to g-"

"I think he was-"

"_Hiei, _you-"

My back bumped into something and someone could just as well have flicked a switch. The room had gone completely silent. Seconds of silence passed, but then Yusuke whistled a long, low blow. "Oh my," Botan whispered from the hallway behind me.

"What?" I asked, strangely frozen. Kuwabara pointed. His eyes looked like they would pop out any minute. I turned around. And found myself-

-face to face with none other than Hiei. Across his shoulder I could see Kurama at the bottom of the stairs, his eyebrows lifted high.

Yusuke was the first to burst out laughing, closely followed by Kuwabara. Not long after the only ones quite were Hiei and I, staring at each other, neither part not quite sure of what expressions to show. Above our heads the mistletoe hang still and silent.

"You _gotta_ be kidding me," I finally managed to mumble under my breath as Yusuke on unsteady legs made his way over to us.

"Careful, don't get too close Urameshi," Kuwabara warned. Yusuke was about to buckle over with laughter at that point.

"No, we wouldn't want a threesome, huh?" he gulped in-between gasps of laughter.

"Well kiddos, you know what's gonna happen," Shizuru lit another cigarette. "So, best to just get it over with," she winked.

Hesitantly I looked back to Hiei, expecting the worst death glare of my life. And true enough; there it was. -Though it was not pointed at me, but rather the ones behind me. Couldn't help feeling a little relieved about that.

Pulling in a breath I paused to look at him more thoroughly. Nearly scanning him. I let out the breath in a puff to move a couple strands of hair from my eyes.

"Shizuru is right; you're not getting away, so it's better to just get it over with," Yusuke had recovered a little and was able to stand more up-right again. Nevertheless, he was still grinning so widely it was a wonder his entire scull wasn't slipping out through his mouth. I sent him a scowl.

"Gimme a break Yusuke, like we haven't been bothering Hiei enough already."

"Aw, sounds like you're feeling sorry for him," his eyes glinted.

"Well, do you _wish_ me dead?" I snarled back.

"Fai, a mistletoe is a mistletoe," Keiko pointed out with an excusing smile, making me stare baffled at her.

"You too? B- but be rational," I tried to reason with them. "It's not like he'd-"

A hand on the back of my head, fingers intertwining with my hair, and I was jerked forwards. My face forced to turn and I met red eyes and rough lips.

Somewhere I registered a strong arm wrapping around my waist, pulling me even closer. The same part of my mind would also have noted, triumphant, that he was half an inch smaller than me. -Had not my mind been white blank, a pool of hot liquid bubbling in my core.

Then it was over.

"Pleased?" the fire demon's voice was low. His gaze red, directed at the detective who was –to put it gently- at a loss of words. And before anyone could react Hiei was gone out the door, a few snowflakes tumbling their way inside before the door slid closed behind him. I could feel a brief gust of cool wind brush against my bare arms.

"Um…" Even Botan was speechless, and that was the _second_ time within half an hour. The talkative grim reaper was having quite a day.

"So," Yusuke said slowly. His entirely baffled expression smoothed slowly into a sly grin. "Did he stick his tongue in?"

* * *

I know Christmas is celebrated in different way in different countries, and I'm a little embarrassed to say I don't really know how any other celebrate it. Therefore I just went with the Norwegian way. We eat the Christmas dinner on the 24th, unwrapping our presents on the same day, in the evening.

Anyhows, hope you enjoyed, even though this one was a little short. .


	8. Chapter 8

Just wanted to drop a little note before we get to the proper reading; from the first "good night", I was listening to this song non-stop writing this entire chapter. So, if you want the same atmosphere I had while writing, please listen to it while reading. ;D (just remember to remove the spaces) http:/ / www. youtube. com/watch?v=gq-NYg3RwtU

The song is called "Headlock", by Imogen Heap.

* * *

My brain kick started back to reality. "No," I protested, surprisingly annoyed. "A mean, why would he do that?" I hurried to add with a grin on top. Yusuke mirrored my grin with hands linked behind his head: Seemingly no harm done by my first ferocious tone, and mentally I breathed out relieved, deciding to ignore the confused voice in the back of my mind. I was just a little disoriented after the surprise was all.

"Where's the scarf?" Kuwabara suddenly asked.

"Oh," Botan, jerked back to life and spun around her own axis once. "It's not here," she confirmed puzzled. "I must have lost it somewhere."

"I'll help you look." And so Yukina and Botan took a tour of the house looking while the rest of us helped Kurama tidying wrapping paper and stray plates and glasses no one was sure who had drunk from.

"Hey everyone, look what we found!" Botan came cheering back the living room and firmly slammed something on the table.

"The sca- Ludo?" Keiko wondered taking a closer look.

"Doesn't that bring back memories," Yusuke snickered, sending Kuwabara a sly glance. Kuwabara however countered by exclaiming with pumped fists "I'll beat you this time Urameshi!"

"Let's split up in teams," Botan decided eagerly. "That way we can all play. We can look for the scarf later, right Fai?"

Being eight people dividing in teams was an easy task. Kuwabara immediately volunteered to team up with Yukina, and with Hiei gone, no one denied him that pleasure. Shizuru flopped down next to Yusuke, the two of them having equal glinting eyes aiming for victory. Botan dragged Kurama down to the floor to be her team mate and Keiko and I joined forces with the intention of beating them all.

* * *

"Good night,"

"Good night."

"Be careful on your way home."

"With all the training you've gone through, I'd say anyone else out at this hour should be the ones careful."

"Yusuke, you make me sound like you."

"Then again with those shoes?"

"I'll just poke hole in my opponent's chest with my heal," I grinned.

"A little bit of height has got you quite cocky, small one."

"Care to test just how small I am, Yusuke?"

"What, you can reach about, lessee, my chest height now? Isn't that impressive. Sure it's not scary being that _high_ up? You look a little pale-"

"_Yusuke, you-!_"

"Don't fear Yukina, I will protect you against anything. No one can beat me-"

"Because you won a game of Ludo? Come _on._"

"Urameshi, you're just angry I won!"

Kurama and I exchanged glances. It was not like it had been Kuwabara's splendid Ludo-luck that had helped them win. Instead everyone had been too soft-hearted to strike out any of Yukina's pieces and so they ended up having a rather easy win –in addition, _Yukina _had quite the luck in Ludo. No one had seen that coming-.

Yusuke ducked a blow and stuck his tongue out with a snicker, and for a change I really, and thoroughly hoped Kuwabara would hit him for a change.

"Thanks for tonight Kurama," I said.

"Yes, it was really nice," Keiko smiled. "And those cakes were so good."

"That's Kurama for you," Botan cheered and patted him on the chest with the back of her hand. "Too bad Koenma had too much paperwork to make it." She laughed at the thought.

"Almost makes me feel sorry for the little sucker," Yusuke said, hands in pockets and a wide grin on his face. "Almost."

"You're so evil," I commented.

"Thank you so much for tonight," Yukina bowed slightly to Kurama who returned the polite gesture.

"The pleasure was all mine," he assured. And with that as a final bid of farewell, our band of seven left the Minamino residence and headed out into the clear winter night. The snow had stopped falling and left a feather light, white blanket putting the world to sleep. From a nearby house music and voices leaked through a window.

Leaving soundless foot prints in the snow we walked silently, pulling in the cool air. It was a soothing end to Christmas Eve. Right then I wouldn't have minded walking there into eternity. Our breaths made small clouds, the tip of our eyelashes slowly turning white. But the warmth from all the food and presents, games and the last cup of tea before we left as we exchanged memories of the past months together, could not be put out.

Once, a snowplough drove slowly past us. Snow swirled along the ground, around our feet, made our dresses dance.

Only one time did our voice breach the crystal like air, and that was when reached our parting point.

We waved, wished each other a last good night and merry Christmas before walking each to ours. Yukina was supposed to sleep over at Kuwabara's before going back to Genkai. She looked wondrously much like a snow fairy there she walked in her yukata between the two larger humans.

I sighed out into the cold air, watching as the small clouds floated up and dissolved to the starry sky. It was a little nostalgic. When had it been again? November? I couldn't even remember.

That night I had met some human thugs and had been tossed into all of this. I had met Yusuke and the others. And Hiei.

"I haven't had much time to watch the news because of those guys," I noted to no body, face lifted to the sky. Staring at the stars I smiled to myself, then let my head drop to look back at the snow.

"Just as good, I suppose. They only made me depressed anyhow." I stretched. How the world had changed since then. My world at least. "I hope mom won't be angry with me for return so late," I yawned. "Though I did tell her it would probably last for a while, so it should be okay." And I continued walking with my mitten-less hands in my pockets to keep warm. Even though this night I felt like nothing could make me cold.

_I wonder where Hiei is._ My eyes strayed to the sky again as I walked._Wonder what he is doing. What "business" he had to take care of__. I tried to blow smoke rings. __Maybe something Koenma told him to do__. It didn__'_t look much like rings._But then Koenma would probably have told all of us. Though I would like to believe not even he would be so heartless as to give us work on Christmas eve. _

And-

"The _scarf._" I remembered suddenly. We had forgotten all about it after the Ludo game. Hopefully Kurama would find it.

"You cold little lady? Unfortunately we don't got a scarf on us right now."

I turned slowly.

A gang of five looked at me. My eyebrow twitched. "You _got__ to be kidding me__._"

This was getting to look too much like that night in November it was almost depressing. Though I had to admit there was one distinct difference this time: Those November guys had not been _demons. _And from what I could judge, these were strong ones too. Not like those Hiei and I had encountered in the woods some time back. Then again, I had not been lying on the lazy side the last weeks either.

"Can I help you?" _Even if I had gotten a little stronger, it didn_'t hurt trying to play it safe. Maybe pretending to be human gave them some sort of kick and they weren't out to kill people this particular night; never underestimate the Christmas spirit. However, when they smiled _so_ politely at each other and me, that hope jumped out the window.

"Do you know who I am?" I changed approach.

"If you are not one of the spirit detective Yusuke Urameshi's helpers, then we apologise for our grave mistake," what looked to be the leader said. How come the stronger demons were the ones with sense of politeness? Koenma should consider making a demon chart based on their politeness to define their strength, rather than their strength alone. These guys even said the word _apologise_.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," I played innocent and batted my eyelids for effect.

"I'm afraid you do," said Mr. Leader. "And I am also afraid we will be killing you now."

"That is quite straight forward," I commented.

"Have you got any idea how big a bounty has been placed on any of the spirit world detective's heads?" he smiled. I shook my head. "It is quite a lot," he winked. Perhaps that had been a distraction manoeuvre, something in the line of my batting eye lids earlier. Regardless of whatever it was; the next thing I knew I was just barely able to dodge a cross-attack from either side of me. The fingers of one of them graced me. These guys were _fast_. My heart picked up in speed. Blood trickled thinly from my left cheek.

They gave me no time to regain composure. The next attack was a clean fist-to-stomach. Though in comparison to what a human would have been able to accomplish, I was flung several feet backwards. Training had still not made me capable of following that speed, but I had at least learned how to land, and skidded backward on the snow until I managed to stop entirely. The white snow cloud around me had yet to settle down when they came for me again. But this time I was prepared.

Something swished toward me, I dodged. It sounded sharp and with a bite of my lip I had to acknowledge that they probably had knives of some sort as well as scary speed. I jumped clear of the demon behind me, blocked an attack from the left and was forced to jump flat to the ground the next second. With some luck my dress would escape this with minimal damage. However, no matter what I tried I was not able to touch them. All I could do was dodge. Pressing my lips together I cursed Kurama for focusing on teaching me mainly defence the last weeks. True enough, I was also a supporter of defence being the best offence, but that would not get rid of these demons and I had no chance of outrunning them in these clothes. Even with a fighting robe that would have been a close run. Though I suppose these stupid clothes called for more cursing than Kurama right n-

I fell face flat to the ground. In a moment of bewildering, I spun around to look at my feet. It felt like ice was being poured down my spine: The heal of my right shoe had broken. _Broken._ Clean off. They had cost me a lot of saving. Dang. And it had felt so nice to be tall too. Or tall_er_.

Two knives, buried not too far away from each of my legs, pinned my dress to the ground. _Dang,_ the dress too. Spotting a demon ahead I twirled around, ignored the agonising sound of tearing clothes, winced as the side of my bare thighs skidded along the cold, sharp snow, spun up on my elbows and kicked him square in the chest. With some spirit energy in the mix it packed quite an impact -that on the loss of being completely open.

I was grabbed from behind and froze as a sharp blade was pressed to my throat.

"This appears to be the end, little missy," the demon whispered sweetly in my ear.

"I'll have to protest," another voice said. The knife cut briefly into my skin before clattering to the ground. The sound was closely followed by the heavier noise of the demon collapsing behind me. It groaned, apparently not entirely dead yet.

"At least _try_ and make yourself useful," the same voice said as a shadow swiftly moved past me, and Hiei was targeting the leader head on.

I got to my senses and grabbed the knife by my feet. Charging for the closest demon I could see, I also snatched with me one of those that had held me pinned to the ground only seconds earlier. With a knife in each hand I made it my sole goal to inflict as much damage as possible –even if I was limping and a little out of balance due to the lack of a heal-. It felt like ages ago now, but I had made a promise I would grow stronger. I had no intentions of making the same mistake as last time. I could do this, I could kill.

* * *

That's what I had thought, anyway. With all my heart I had honestly thought I could make a change. How ironic fate could be. The only difference was that this time _he _was not the only one hurt.

A long gash ran along the side of my face. I couldn't see it but I had a bad feeling it didn't look good. The wound running deep on the right side of my stomach however, I _could_ see, and it looked less than not good. My feet and half way up to my knee were frozen blue. Somewhere along the fight I'd had to kick off the shoes. My vision crisscrossed, became blurry, I forced it back to focus with all my might. Hiei was here somewhere. All I had to do was follow the sounds. My head felt too heavy to lift. I stumbled across something on the ground. A body. I felt the need to throw up making my stomach cold and face warm. But he wasn't entirely dead. His throat was slit half over, gurgling sounds of breath and blood in a death promising mix tangling in my ears.

I broke into a run. It wasn't fast or much of a run at all, but faster than walking. I squinted my eyes. Ahead I could make out the contour of a small figure fighting someone at least two and a half times its size.

"Hiei," I choked. He was beat to the ground. But his stubborn nature had him up on his feet not long after. He would have been better off staying down. The two remaining demons practically used him as a volley ball. Since when had our opponents been this strong? Since when had random attacks on the street forced Hiei to use the dragon on his right hand, with only one of them falling victim to the attack? If that was the future of our fights I was not sure how we were going to make it.

A glint of cold steel winked at me through the darkness. The smaller was kicked out of balance. _Hiei._ He hit the ground hard, head knocked into a wall. He was cornered. I pulled in air desperately. Willing my legs to work as they should, I flung myself in-between them. Staring into his face I saw shock creep onto his face. "What-?" his lips soundlessly formed.

"Trust in me," I gasped. The knife fell hard on my back. Hiei's eyes widened. It felt nothing like the other times. My thoughts shot like a laser beam into his mind. And for a second I was blinded by white light. It felt like I had been electrocuted. My mouth sprang open though no sound escaped from it.

Instead came the sound of steel against steel.

For a moment I wondered if that was all.

Would we be kept from entering each others memories when I was transformed? From the feel of it Hiei wondered the same. -For the _feel_ of it… No memories rushed before my eyes, no feelings from the past. Instead it felt like I was in the _present _Hiei. What he was feeling, sensing and seeing stood equal to what I saw, felt and sensed. I could see myself before me. I saw myself through his eyes, though I at the same time still saw Hiei lie on the ground. Perhaps it would be better described as that I sensed or understood more than saw what he saw.

That all happened in less than a second. Then followed the pain. A coruscating pain and I realised with shock that those were his wounds. My own were nothing in comparison. Though regardless of that and regardless of the exhaustion crushing us both, a new sort of energy began pulsing through me. And I knew he felt the same.

The knife had been knocked out of the demons hands, Hiei sliced his arm off with one, clean cut. The demon roared with pain. _|Don't look now.| __Hiei separated the head from its body. The roar cut short to a deathly silence. The head fell to the ground with a soft thud, followed by its body. _

What happened next I was only half aware of: The last demon refused to go down without a fight, though realising he was suddenly defenceless I had a vague memory of him trying to escape.

Hiei hadn't let him. From behind he had buried me through its chest. I could hear the desperate pulse of what was not his heart but the demon's life force all around me. The heave of breath and gurgling sound that followed as I pierced a lung. The rush of blood, the squirming of muscles and intestines. A non ending squishing sound all around me.

Reality was not pretty.

We had run. I could feel Hiei's exhaustion as my own. I was heavy in his hands. Drained for the needed energy to wield me, small, brief stabs of electricity-like pain shot into his hand, chasing further up his arm with each thrust.

From a tall building Hiei had watched. Watched as police cars assembled, inhabitants of the nearby buildings crowded, and the accident that would be the severely unpleasant end to my parents Christmas. -Except he was not aware that just yet.


	9. Chapter 9

"Say that one more time and slower this time," Yusuke said with more furrowed brows than what should be physically possible. Not many feet from him The Baby Ruler was giving him though competition.

Every muscle in Hiei's face twitched dangerously.

" 'She is unable to transform back' ."

"And she confirmed of this herself?" Koenma slid slowly back down in his king-size chair, his face old of worried frowns. Finally moving onwards in the conversation –after too many repetitions of the same sentence than the fire demon had cared to count-, Hiei's patience found new, unknown strength and his face eased down a tiny tad.

"No."

"N-no?" Had Koenma had glasses he would have been refitting them furiously. Instead he half fell off the chair. "Then how-?"

"I am unable to come in contact with her," Hiei cut him short and dumb.

"You might have to elaborate that a little again, Hiei," Kurama broke in for the sake of the three others in the room, currently the one with the most poise of them all, still standing on both feet and no strands of hair out of place.

Though now they were back were they had started.

Hiei pulled in a deep breath. "She was ambushed by five upper level demons. I had to come pull her out of it or she would have been killed," he growled annoyed. "However, you all saw how she reacted the first time she had to fight demons."

Even though Kuwabara's glance-exchange with Yusuke told they did not fully comprehend what he was getting at, the small fire demon did not feel like "elaborating" it any further one _more time_.

"Well," Koenma said slowly. He had pulled in a deep breath and his face almost looked a tiny bit smoother.

"If I may come with a suggestion," Kurama offered. "For now, what I think would be the best is to leave her be like this." He lifted a hand to halt the several objections rising. "If not even Hiei is able to reach her, then the rest of us have no chance of it what so ever, regardless of how hard we try."

This time there was no objections. Yusuke kicked an imaginary stone across the floor.

"I am certain she will be able to recover with a few days to calm down." The redhead smiled, giving the atmosphere a gentle lift with his soft voice. "And when she does, we will help her."

"I guess," Yusuke sighed. He rubbed the back of his head and came with a small growl. "It's just so frustrating not being able to do anything!" he exclaimed in lack of no other outlet, and he jammed his hands in the green pockets of his uniform, grunting a short: "I'm going home."

Koenma jerked, as if pulled out of deep thoughts. He fumbled a split second and a portal popped open the next. Yusuke walked through without a second glance back. Slightly hesitating Kuwabara hurried after –though he stopped halfway through the shimmering surface. "She- she will be okay, right?"

Kurama smiled. "Of course." Kuwabara gave the sword a last worried glance before following Yusuke.

"Well then, Fai should be left here and- Hiei? Where are you going?"

The fire demon in question held a steady course toward the portal. He didn't look at the baby ruler –or the other demon present in the room for that matter. "You always spend too much time worrying and pondering about situations. I don't have more time to waste here."

And he was gone through the shimmering circle.

* * *

"You know, if you wanted to keep her, I am sure Koenma would not have stopped you if you had asked."

"What are you doing here?"

Kurama chuckled. He was leaning against a tree; arms crossed and watched the afternoon sun spread crystals across the snow. The chuckle died away. His gaze wandered further to the sky.

"The result of the blood samples should have been presented for her parents by now," he remarked to the sky. "They appeared to have cross checked the blood samples from the 'crime scene' quite a few times," he added with a glance up. "Especially after a few they could not quite place." The black silhouette he just barely could get a glimpse of showed no signs of listening.

The fox' green eyes returned to looking straight forward, no visible feelings crossing his face as he continued his rapport:

"Currently, Koenma is trying to find a solution to the problem, but so long as the police has a sample of her blood saying she was there and obviously severely hurt, there is not much which can be done."

"Hn."

Kurama had to settle with that probably being the best reply he would get out of Hiei for the rest of the day. He breathed slowly in the cold winter air, standing there by the tree saying nothing more. There was no need for anything more, and nothing more could be done now anyhow. So he eased down, growing a small branch next to him to sit on. Cupping a handful of snow in his hands he formed a tiny snow man. He grew it two black berries for eyes and a tiny twig for a mouth. It stared blankly up at him when he was finished.

By then its bottom was melting in his hands.

"_Hiei! Kurama!" _The fox's head snapped up. He looked up and from behind a cloud Botan came in a breath taking dive toward them.

_Black. It had been black behind me. Now it's black all around. Not cold, not warm. Not anything. Not thick running red, no screams, no feelings. _

_Safe. _

_No need to think, no need to feel. Nothing. Had wanted to stay though. For a while had stood on the borderline. Behind black. In front think running red. Black behind calling. Calling sweetly. Soothingly. Quietly. _

_But someone had held on__. Urged to keep going, said everything would be all right. Didn't want to leave that person. Wavered. _

_So unsure. _

_Thick running red ran down. Dripped, a screaming witnessed. Screaming without sound so loudly. So loudly it hurt. Had let go. Darkness all around now. _

_So safe. _

_Nothing. Though nothingness doesn't exist here. _

"What's wrong?" Kurama had risen the moment he caught sight of her and now she skidded to a halt in front of him.

"A grim reaper in training has gone missing." She took a moment to catch her breath.

"We were already worried when she and her tutor did not return, but just now the tutor came back and told us they had been ambushed. She has already tried getting the trainee back, but it was impossible for her. And she is in a real bad shape as well. Makes us fear the worst for her student."

Somewhere along 'they did not return' Kurama had climbed onto her oar. And at 'came back and' he had managed to get Hiei to follow his example by staring at him with reproachful eyes until he with an "hn", a grunt and a groan had followed.

"How come we are not using a portal?" Kurama asked into Botan's ear to be heard over the wind roaring about their heads.

"Koenma is currently trying to locate her. For now he has only managed to find the area, but when he pin-points her whereabouts he will send us one."

That happened ten minutes later. So ten minutes and seven seconds later Kurama and Hiei stood next to Yusuke and Kuwabara in-between some trees surrounding a surprisingly sweet looking cabin.

"What kind of kidnapper demons use cabins in our day and age?" Yusuke muttered.

"The kind that enjoys forest walks?" Kuwabara suggested.

"The kind that sets obvious traps," Kurama corrected him.

"So what are we gonna do? Just walk right in, or-?"

"Yes." Hiei answered and cut off any possible suggestions for plan-making Kuwabara could have made, and walked straight up to the little building of wood and windows. Kurama got up with a sigh, a smile and followed the smaller across the open grass area to the cabin. Yusuke and Kuwabara ran after and caught up to them just as Hiei opened the door and strolled in without knocking or looking around.

There was an abrupt sound of someone standing up and Yusuke poked his head in the door.

"Hello," he greeted with a grin to whoever was there. It was a girl. A girl with long, purple hair. And using normal sense, also most likely the one they were supposed to retrieve –besides, grim reapers seemed to have a particular love for drastic hair colours-. "We've come to rescue you."

She pulled in a sharp breathed gasp. "It's a trap, you should hurry ou-"

"We know," Hiei said annoyed from one of the windows. She blinked perplex, her eyes rich brown.

"You… knew? And yet you came in here?" she looked from one of here rescuers to the other. "Are you stupid?"

Yusuke's shoulder dropped a little. "Hey, we're here to rescue you, so cut the mean remarks, would you?"

"I heard the spirit detective and his crew was the strongest in spirit world, and never failed. But there must have been quite a couple of lies added in there," the girl mumbled.

"Now listen, any idiot demon that hides out in this kind of obvious cabin is bound to be easy to take out, so why don't you shut it and just enjoy the ride?" Yusuke leaned against the doorway. From beside him Kuwabara leaned closer and whispered: "Hiei must have known that from the start. Now I get why he walked in so quickly."

"We don't know anything before we've seen 'em," Yusuke mumbled back and entered the room. Kuwabara was left in the doorway bewildered.

"What? I don't get it."

Kurama smiled at him, following Yusuke inside. "Even if they may be easy to defeat I'd rather we got out of here as fast as possible. If we don't have to fight them, then that saves us time."

"Agreed. C'mon missy, we're leaving." Yusuke grabbed the young grim reaper's wrist and pulled her with him outside. That's about as far as their peaceful rescuing got.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Eight feet high, four hundred and forty-five pounds, and hands as dinner plates. It was nothing but a rough guess, but still made Yusuke whistle with surprised approval. "About time you appeared. Got any buddies lurking around?"

"Talking about us?" Five more, about just the same size, take and give some feet, appeared from in-between the trees. And with them, a yellow and sparkling network of energy threads formed a bowl formed lid on the small grass opening around the cabin.

"Well, that certainly puts it all in a slightly different light," Yusuke admitted. The demons grinned at them.

"You aren't getting out of this alive, I can promise you that. Not even your little portals can get you through that," the first one said.

"I said 'different light', not 'impossible'," Yusuke kindly reminded him. "We'll just have to cross our fingers and hope this thing disappears once you're all killed. If not, _then _we're in trouble."

This of course made the demons mad. And _that _of course was Yusuke's plan. Not long after, all four of the rescuers were thrown into heated battle.

"You should get back into the cabin," Kurama said, holding one arm out to shield the young grim reaper. She turned to do as he said, though stopped by the door. She wanted to stay and watch. Kurama flicked his tongue noticing this. The young ones never learned unless it was something they experienced for themselves. Oh well, for now he couldn't force her.

Not far from her stood a sword leaned up against the wall, unnoticed by her as she eagerly followed every step of her four rescuers.

That included a lot of jumping, running, growling, scratching, clawing, punching, kicking, energy blasting, shooting and slashing on their account.

She sat down. Even if she had heard they were the best there was in spirit world, they sure were taking their time. So rumours really were just rumours. She pouted her bottom lip in disapproval. She had to tell her tutor her starry opinion of the spirit detective and his tag team was a tad off.

"Why doesn't he just blow their heads off? And I'm hurt. I need to get to the hospital as soon as possible too." Inspecting her bruises and cuts she winced slightly.

Kurama just barely dodged the barrier as he was thrown backwards.

"I want to go home," she muttered, hugging her knees.

He got up. With a soundless snarl the demon's left foot flew off and up in the air. Yusuke blasted his head off from behind. "They are slow and not very powerful," he spat blood. "But their skin is tough as iron and they're _heavy_." He dodged a demon and saw Kuwabara jump with a roar up on its back. The sword dug deep into his back as Hiei simultaneously buried a fist enhanced with energy into its stomach. A green mass spurted from its mouth. It lost balance on its residing right foot and hit the ground with a sound loud as thunder. Its three other limbs were spread about the battle field. That only went to emphasize what Yusuke had said. The detective in question kicked a cut-off foot across the ground.

"Never thought I'd live to see the day Kuwabara and Hiei cooperated."

"Hiei is without a sword, it can't be helped," Kurama replied.

Yusuke eyed the remaining three demons, one of which was already missing half an arm. Meaning; it hung, cut halfway through, from its shoulder. Useless; it was as good as a missing arm -and also Kuwabara's try all the way back in the beginning of the fight on penetrating the demon's tough skin.

"Come and get it, tough guys."

All the while the young grim reaper had begun drawing small figures on the ground. Though she had heard what they said and she looked around curiously. She was pretty sure she could recall the little demon carrying a sword by his side when they had entered. Maybe it had broken during the fight? Then she saw it, standing there clean and unused against the wall. Not able to recall whether it had been standing there earlier or not, she scooted curiously over, took it and drew the sword out of its hilt. So shiny.

"Hey!" she yelled over at the fighting bunch. "Why don't you use this?" she waved the sword at the little, red eyed one. His eyes widened. Giving the demon he was fighting a knock-out energy blast -which only shove it backwards-, he spun around and sped off toward her. But another demon had also taken interest in what she had said. One of the enemy demons. And not wanting their opponents to gain any unnecessary weapons, he too ran toward her. And Hiei being held back by another demon for a split second the bad demon got there first. Yusuke's head snapped in her direction.

"_Watch out_!"

With a terrified scream the young grim reaper lifted the sword to protect herself. The demon's claws rushed down toward her with a roar.

A flash of demon energy and the towering creature was hurled backwards. A moment of confusion, a brief halt in the fighting. She slowly opened eyes she had not noticed closing. In front of the young grim reaper stood Hiei with both arms lifted. One hand smoking after the energy bomb, the other dripping of blood. Seemingly, even he with his speed had not escaped wounds.

He turned, snatched the sword out of the girl's hands and sheathed it again without a word. "Th-" He sent her a dark glare cutting her off. Then he placed the sword back against the wall and headed back in the direction of the fight and what were now only two remaining demons.

As they now, halfway through, had started to get a hang of it, the next two demons -in comparison to the other three- were a lot easier to deal with. By the death of the first of the two however, the barrier around them dissolved.

"Guess we now know who was responsible for the caging," Yusuke had noted. "It was pretty good work, too bad he's too dead to hear the compliment." And afterwards they turned towards the other. With no allies left the last had fled.

They chased it down without difficulty.

"Looks like you got nowhere to run anymore. Give it up and come with us peacefully; we need you for questioning," Yusuke said with a sigh. This rescuing was dragging on for longer than preferred and certain demons never knew when to quit. On the other hand he wanted to know what they had tried to obtain by kidnapping a grim reaper in training. And he knew he was not alone about this. And then there was also the possibility this demon knew something about the ones that had attacked Fai. Probably not much of a possibility, but every possibility counts.

The demon took a quick glance down.

"Hey, don't be stupid. We're not gonna _kill_ you," Kuwabara took a few steps toward the demon. The very next second it had grabbed him by the wrist and he was-

flung over a cliff.

"_KUWABARA!" _

In the blink of an eye things happened very quickly. Yusuke was by the cliff edge, Kurama had grabbed his shoulder. A few, small rocks fell from the edge. Yusuke stared down, securely held back by the fox demon who in turn watched him carefully; in case he would have to strap the detective down to keep him from going on a suicide, fatal rescue. However:

"Oh," was all the spirit detective said. "He'll be fine."

* * *

Once returned to the spirit world they reported back to Koenma, Yusuke giving him a few remarks on not being so useless after all somewhere along the way, and with a hopeless sigh the baby ruler shooed them toward the sickroom to get some tender tending.

"Any later and we would have to pick you up with a vacuum cleaner," Yusuke said from the white bench he was sitting on, getting stitched together a little, even though his demon energy would take care of most of the healing.

"Yeah," Kuwabara replied with a shudder. "He can actually be a little helpful with those portals sometimes."

"You could be too, if you did not act so stupid all the time," Hiei noted.

"What? Hey, I helped kill those demons too-"

"And yet you were foolish enough to let your guard down and get close to the last one alive. How you have been able to stay alive all this time even I do not understand."

A quarrel of words and insults followed and Kurama smiled an excuse on their behalf at the young grim reaper.

"Please ignore them; they tend to do that quite often. That aside," he looked more closely at her. For a trained eye it would have been possible to detect the very slight change in his smile. "I have to say you were able to stay surprisingly calm during our fight. Not many are able to do so. Especially not in one as-" he paused "-limb-loosing as that one ended up being."

She shrugged. "Grim reapers are not supposed to fight. It's not what we do and not our field of expertise. Therefore I had no intentions of getting involved and saw no reason to freak out over it. If you had gotten killed, Koenma would just have found another way to save me."

"That so." Yusuke had followed their brief conversation. "Good thing we won then, so her highness wouldn't have to wait even longer for someone else to show up and save her."

"_Yusuke_, that is no way to approach a lady."

"Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And I'm happy you're alive and -_hey, could you kids keep it the hell down?" _

"Even so," the young grim reaper watched as Yusuke took part in the verbal fight. A little away from them and noise two healers were taking a closer look at Hiei's arm. "From what I have heard about him, I honestly didn't expect Hiei to save me like that-"

"And you should not be mistaken," Kurama replied before she got the chance to finish properly. "It was not you he was defending by allowing his arm to be torn up like that."

She stared at him. Far back in the educated, levelled eyes there was a brief tug of… something. "Then… " she didn't finish.

Kurama smiled at the confused girl. "Don't think too much about it. We were there to save you and we did. And I am sure Hiei's arm will be all right again after they have tended to it. But I suppose it best if you did not touch that sword again."

* * *

"Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Sure Kurama. I guess you won't be serving anything stronger anyway."

"Yusuke, you are still under age. Really."

"Not even your scoffs can cure him, Kurama. He is beyond help."

"You sure you're the right person to say that, Kuwabara?"

"Hey, I'm-"

"Kurama."

"What is it? Would you like a cup too, Hiei?″

* * *

In the dark, a sword casually leaned in the lap and up along the shoulder could not be spotted by movie-engulfed eyes. Different faces of awe, excitement, light scare and impatience surrounded him in all directions. Even the detective had a grinning expression pulled across his face, and the goof next to him- not even worth mentioning.

Kurama, at the end of their four-man row uptake of seats, sat with his arms crossed, a mildly amused look on his face. But at the very least, he appeared more collected than the other tens on tens of idiotic people in this room. A lot more.

Hiei was not sure anymore how he had managed to end up here. Though he knew it had contained tee drinking at Kurama's place and a foolish proposal from Kuwabara upon catching a glimpse of a news paper. However, in the end the most foolish one must have been himself, for thinking this would help.

A loud sound, at once accompanied by dozens of surprised or frightened cries. Hiei did not bat an eyelid but his nose wrinkled with distaste. Not to the scene displayed right then, mind, but to all the humans around him.

The sword remained indifferent.

_What a waste of time_. The little fire demon had forgotten the title of the movie already. Not that it mattered anyhow. It was filled with horses and swordfights, everything put in an old-fashioned setting, from a time humans of today were not even born to remember. And it was all circled around main character humans believed to be heroic.

He shifted impatiently in the soft seat; the extra granting him height slid slightly off the edge. Humans had such useless, annoying inventions. He had to push himself up the black plastic armrests to push the red extra seat back in.

When it felt somewhat safe again, and not on the verge of sending him toppling over to the dirty floor he sat back down to continue cursing at himself for actually being here.

Regardless, it _was_ different from what he had first imagined, he would give it that. And even though he frequently was about to fall off, it was a painful truth he had to admit to that he would not have been able to see anything without the extra seat –regardless the annoying embarrassment it had cost him.

However, in the end, being there did not grant him the desired effect after all.


	10. Chapter 10

If he could he would have sliced –what Yusuke said was- the theme song of the film in half. Just too bad one cannot grace a memory no matter how much one might wish for it, and the melody did not seem to be leaving him alone anytime soon.

Kuwabara had looked straight out stunned and that obnoxious detective and his fellow fox had stifled a laugh to the best of their ability when Yusuke explained to him he had indeed got a song stuck on his brain. Afterwards he had assured him it was a rather common phenomenon and it would cure itself over time –but that of course did not make it any more bearable.

A bell chimed and bustled all the dozens multiplied by dozens of humans out enjoying the surprisingly warm sun, into the huge building. It was almost as if one could hear them groan in unison as one person as they got on their feet from wherever they were sitting or running about, and walked back inside with heavy feet.

Hiei shifted. The lesser part of five seconds later, he was up in a branch he had before. There were no leaves, but many enough branches to secure him from inattentive eyes when the area beneath was not crammed with people.

A rattle.

Across the few feet separating Hiei and the old, grey building a window was pushed open. Someone inside sighed, groaned, exclaimed something Hiei was too uninterested to catch onto, and during the next few minutes more arriving humans added to the noise inside.

When the last, after the other twenty-seven humans entered -which Hiei had made a bad habit of unintentionally counting each time- it became quiet and the fire demon could enjoy the calm wind silently stroking past, closing his eyes. It carried with it distant tales of a summer to return yet again one day –though if it kept up like this, snow would be gone by the end of the week. Or perhaps within the next two days more likely.

Hiei sometimes found himself amused –despite his efforts not to feel anything regarding these humans- that even after two weeks on the same branch; none of the ones inside had taken the slightest notice of him.

The voice of the one who last entered had been going on for a while, but was now replaced by another younger one. The demon recognized it, though he had not intended for it, there was really nothing to be done about accidentally gradually being able to distinct and recognize each of the twenty-seven voices from each other.

Fourteen days outside the same window would do this to you, regardless if you were indeed an unwilling, ignorant fire demon.

It was a male's voice. Hiei remembered the boy's name to be Taka-something. From inside the window laughter broke out. The boy must have answered wrongly to… whatever it had been.

Hiei snorted a brief smile –even though he probably would not have been able to answer the grown up human's question either-. Then his eyes popped abruptly open as the next voice to breach the air caught his ear. He straightened up a bit to look inside at the girl who had decided to substitute for the failing boy.

Out of what had become a reflex when this happened, Hiei shifted the position of the sword as well as he listened to the voice of the female human being he believed to go under the name "Maka".

When two hours had passed, the bell rung for the last time that day. He wanted to sigh, but stifled it with gritted teeth as he realized with great displeasure at himself he had not actually expected anything to happen anymore.

After fourteen days it had become nothing but an act of habit to come here, in loss of anything better to try.

He watched bitterly as the twenty-seven young humans and that one older one clear what Kurama once had said was a classroom at the other side of the open window. In the end only five remained. They moved slowly, smiling faintly at each other only now and then as they gathered their belongings.

"You look so pathetic, worrying like that."

It was the tallest of them who spoke. She was also the only one who appeared completely indifferent and seemed to only be hanging behind because of a significant larger amount of books to tuck away than the others.

A short, brown haired girl spun around. Her balled up fists trembled but the taller ignored her, and with a last glance at her stack of books, left swiftly without another word.

"Maka" put her hand at the short girl's shoulder gently. A moment it looked like she would break free, run out the door, exclaim something. But then the fists fell powerlessly to her sides, and biting her lip she grabbed the brown bag, so similar to all the others', to leave.

Two stories down could the fire demon see the tall girl escape the building, as her long, softly billowing hair danced in the breeze and half hid the hand lifted to her face as she quickly walked away from the grounds.

"You know her?"

Hiei jerked around. On a branch a few feet away Yusuke sat with a lopsided grin. "Or were you just mesmerized by her looks," he teased. Hiei glared -though it was only half meant for the detective. The other half he wanted to point at himself for being so lost in his thoughts he had not sensed him coming and therefore let himself be taken by surprise.

On the ground beneath two other males stood, one with red hair the other a strange orange. Both had their hands in their pockets and both had their eyes turned up towards him.

With a silent grumble to himself the fire demon jumped down before none of them could request it of him. He did not feel like adding unnecessary trouble to the load.

"I believe her name is Sakura," Kurama said once the two up in the tree had reached the ground.

"How do you know that?" Kuwabara asked surprised. Yusuke sighed and shook his head, but sniggered at his oaf of a friend all the same.

"Already forgotten we were babysitting Fai from the shadows not all too long ago?"

"Oh, right. I forgot."

Yusuke shook his head with a sigh, though in difference from usual he left the matter at that without making anything bigger of it. Instead, he asked what they should do now and Kurama proposed a visit to a bakery for the sake of their wet shoes from the melting snow and the knowledge of two in their group surely growing hungry soon.

All together three weeks had passed. Three weeks into the New Year with a seemingly endless rain that had already washed away most of the melting snow, making this the first day of proper sun.

During these three weeks Yusuke had spent most his time at the arcade, together with his money and Kuwabara. Even Kurama dropped by every once in a while when he appeared to have nothing better to do. Once -something that had surprised all three gravely, even Kurama- Hiei stood next to them, watching as they tapped the buttons and nearly strangled the consoles.

When they were not at the arcade however, they were mostly at Kurama's place, where even Hiei most of the time accompanied them. But when they were all in school none of them knew of exactly what he was doing.

-Though, according to Kurama, Hiei had begun visiting that school for the last two weeks, Yusuke recalled, watching as the fire demon silently took a seat by the table. But even after receiving this piece of information from the fox, none of them had really felt up to asking more about it from the person in question, as their fire demon had been in an extra quiet mood these last few weeks.

Kurama politely took care of their requests, before returning with a board filled to the brim with plates and drinks.

The questioning of the demon they had caught in the woods had not brought anything interesting with it either, and after days of different interrogations, it had been thrown in a prison cell.

They were silent for a while.

Listening to the bustling about them in the warm, small bakery, nothing to talk about coming to mind.

That was at least until Kuwabara mentioned something about Koenma and a case he had them do a while back and Yusuke, thankful to have something to talk about, threw himself mind and soul into the conversation. Kurama turned the wheel slightly and their lively chattering tilted over to circle the subject of whether or not to do another attempt on wriggling the truth out of the demon, and then to why some artists prefer play-back. What this had to do about each other was hard to tell, but that the magic about spirited conversations.

"Hey, this is the same café we went to with the girls during Christmas` present shopping, isn't it?" Kuwabara suddenly noted.

And they all fell quiet again.

The fire demon at the other side of the table had not moved a muscle from the endless stare he had kept out the window the entire time they had been there. His arms were loosely crossed and the part of the glass surfaced table in front of him was empty. He had not ordered anything.

"So Fai hasn't said anything?" Kuwabara muttered under his breath. The detective shook his head.

"Quiet as a sword for three whole weeks, literally."

The half-hearted attempt of a joke got no response. Not from the one who spoke it either. Yusuke buried the spoon into the remaining piece of his cake more forcefully than what must have been intended, for it hit the plate with a rather loud clink, mercilessly chopping the piece in two.

* * *

He stared in through the window. He had refrained from going here all this time, not even sure to himself why.

At the other side of the wide glass surface, he could see the shifting motion of a TV screen. Between the glass and it stood a beige sofa, a head with brown hair poking up from the back rest followed by a pair of shoulders. They were slim; implying the human sitting there was a female. A few minutes later the phone rang. Only once did it ring before she had it in her hand, nearly gasping the hello into it.

So, still after all this time of nothing, they were waiting. Hiei's hands sunk deeper into his pockets as he watched her face close more and more until she put the phone down and just barely gave a shake of the head to the male who had appeared in the doorway. He pulled her closer.

Koenma had not been able to come up with an explanation. Hiei had not expected him to either. There was little to be said when the facts were dyed in blood.

He moved smoothly backwards across the lightly snow covered grass and mixed with the shadows as the glass door was pushed open. She stood there staring out at the evening sky. The mild winter breeze stroking along her bare arms without being granted any form of response from the female.

"Where is she?"

Hiei jerked ever so slightly. A moment it had sounded like it was aimed at him, but her gaze was still at the clouds seeming to stand still at the flushed sky and it was apparent she did not expect a reply.

"Where is our daughter?" She turned to the male who softly had followed her, panic tugging more strongly at her words now. He brushed his big hands along her arms gently.

"She is okay," he said firmly.

"_How can you say that_?" there was no doubt about the despair and frustration blending with her voice this time.

But his eyes were firm and steady as she stared hard at him, her eyes craving a different reaction than the one he was displaying. Her hands trembled. Had he not soothed her arms the way he did the demon felt no doubt she would have hit him.

"We cannot help her," the male said. And before the female in his hands could interrupt he continued: "So all we can do is trust and believe in her. She is a big girl, and our daughter. She won't give up so easily."

"But what if she is dead?"

The garden was a little darker now, the shadows longer. The spots of snow being like lanterns spun of dreams, giving the illusion of the evening being lighter than it really was. And from a dark pit underneath one of the whispering trees the fire demon watched the two humans wrap each other into a shared embrace of a shared wish. They knew so little of how close their daughter truly was at that moment. Had they just known she was not farther than their own garden.

Their lack of sensing abilities made them look pathetic in the demon's eyes. However, somewhere faint and deep down, hidden beyond bitter years and behind layers of closed doors he pitied them. Felt sorry for them, as their feelings were not unknown to him.

-Though he would rather be found dead and devoured twice, than admit to this.

They did not leave.

As the dark night sky draped the world in bottomless shadows, they stayed in the doorway.

The amount of cars passing by on the other side of the red house had decreased, leaving only a few motorized vehicles to pass by. -Though the occasional signs of other living, breathing human beings in the world seemed to pass the two by unnoticed.

To them they were the only ones left, tucked into their own secure space of wooden floor, glass door and a starless sky surrounding them from everywhere above.

They could have gotten a blanket. The warmth from the sun had long since disappeared, but the demon felt sure had ice formed around their cold fingers they would still not have moved from the doorway keeping them in-between the safe warmth of their home and the unknown outside world.

No words were exchanged.

Nothing but the common wish, and hope it would be granted to them somehow. Had the detective been there he might have spun a joke about the small demon being their shooting star.

They could perhaps have fallen asleep where they slid down to a sitting position while the glass door reflected them in darker shades. Could. Had not the phone rung. And even though the male first seemed to give in to the female's silent plea of staying, he then got up with a breathed sigh.

A few muted steps later the ringing sounding all too high in the quiet air was replaced by the lower, calm voice of the male. It lasted for nothing but a few minutes. Upon ending the conversation he turned back to her with a gentle smile, and from the deep shadows the demon watched him walk across the floor again and help his woman up from her cold seat on the doorstep.

She muttered something the demon could not hear, smiled and closed the door. From where he was watching, the movement appeared reluctant and perhaps even slightly uneasy.

The words spoken between them could now only be heard as a dim murmur from the other side of the glass, until it died out entirely as they left the room. With the flick of a switch, the light which had slipped through the glass, no longer kept away the night and the garden was engulfed by darkness too deep for shadows.

He had to move. As the demon stirred his stiff muscles awake he scanned his surroundings for a new hideout.

It was but a slim opening, but nothing more was required for him to hear their voices through the window, and he found a secluded spot in-between branches on level with the first floor. He listened to their softly spoken words as they ensured each other everything would be all right and planned what they should do to make sure of this.

However, regardless of him having no problem hearing them, the one he hoped would be able to hear their voices as they slowly fell asleep cradled in each other's arms, showed no signs of even being conscious.

It began raining.

From the clouds hidden by the night's darkness tiny drops of water slipped from the starless sky. He pulled further back against the centre of the tree for better shelter.

There was a rustle in the bushes beneath him. The next second a cat jumped out. Its ears twitched in different directions of each other as the grey and black spattered tail beat slowly back and forth. It looked to reflect upon its options, then it scurried off with another jump across a spot of snow, slipped through the flower beds and under what in daylight was a white fence.

All feeling of time was lost as the fire demon stayed there in the tree, secured from the light drizzle by a network of thinner and thicker branches. The only sign of the humans being alive being the easy sounds of breathing just barely reaching through the sound of the rain.

Had he ventured into their room he would have spotted the digital clock on the night stand. But he did not, and fate had it so the clock was turned with its backside to the window, and so the fire demon never saw the neon coloured numbers shine the time at him. Thus was he not aware it counted two hours until it started raining harder.

Millions of hard drops welled from the sky. By the time the numbers could reach another half hour the fire demon was soaked to the bone, the sword resting between his back and the trunk of the tree, covered by his cloak. However, the demon did not give in to the cold water before another fifteen minutes had past.

Then he left.

The tree, the dark garden and the last small spots of snow he knew would be gone the next morning.

Running through the quiet streets and deserted gardens the small demon tried to keep out of the rain as much as the different covers he came across would allow him. –This even though it did no longer count any to or fro for his clothes.

He reached the desired destination faster and through short-cuts no human could have copied. Looking up at the seemingly dead windows he snuck closer to the walls, walked quickly around the house once and found what he was searching for: A small opening between a window and its sill. He eased it open with a gentle soundlessness any thief would be envious of, and slipped inside.

He took two steps, then stopped. Everything was quiet. Everything, expect- he jerked.

Sharp light blended him, his eyes used to the night; he blinked and willed the world back in focus in seconds. And in the doorway, with his hand resting in the switch, stood Kurama.

"Is there something wrong with our door?" despite the faked worry there was an unmistakable smile tugging at the fox` voice. The fire demon glared and at this the redhead chuckled. He then eased the light laugh into a soft smile and the two demons stood there in the light from a single roof lamp. In the end the redheaded fox spoke up again:

"The guest bed up stairs is free. So long as you stay quiet my mother won't think of looking in there before she goes to work tomorrow."

He watched as the smaller demon walked past him with a single hn and headed for the stairs without looking at him.

"Swords might rust in rain, right?" Kurama's causal note as he closed the window Hiei minutes earlier entered through makes the smaller demon stopped for a second. But then he continues up the steps without a sound.

There was a click from downstairs, followed by darkness and a silent sigh, before steps up the stairs.

"So I take it this means none of it worked after all."

But Hiei does not answer. Looking at him from his own doorway Kurama did not expect him to either. He lets his eyes travel over the smaller demon's soaked cloak, where he can guess a sword is well hid.

The door to the guest room slides shut.

The fox` gaze slides down to the floor as he too pulls back into his room. There is nothing he can do. With all his wits and knowledge, there is nothing he can do to help the smaller demon and the girl trapped in her own subconsciousness and he pushes the door silently close.

_|Fai.|_


	11. Chapter 11

_|Fai.|_

_|After all you put us through, are you just going to cower away when it gets a little too tough for you? Did you not promise you would grow stronger, regardless of what I thought of it? But that was perhaps nothing but the words of a naïve child caught in the moment, and nothing you planned to keep. _

_If that is so, then I suppose you really are a foolish human. A stupid, weak, little human girl, who I do not feel entitled to waste any more time on.| _

* * *

The fire demon had been in quite a dilemma.

Thinking he might as well use it when offered to him, he had attempted to enter the bed. However, he did not get further than to lean one knee against the soft material before a big, dark spot grew under him.

His clothes were –after all- completely soaked.

He must have left quite a trail through the house as well. Wrinkling his nose, he hoped the fox had thought about that and would do something about it. Not like it was his problem if the fox` mother found out anyhow.

But what to do about his clothes though, was a different matter entirely. He might have been a demon, and whether the bed got wet or not was not really any concern of his. However –believe it or not- even though the possibility was small, demons were and are to some degree able to catch such things as colds, and other unnecessary, waste of time things that come with staying in cold, wet clothes. And he was indeed not interested in catching any of that.

First he thought to wring out his clothes as much as possible through the window. But since it was still pouring down out there, that would do more harm than good.

So after thinking about it for a while, the little fire demon braved the hallway and then slipped into the bathroom. It might not be his problem if some of the other residents of the house found out he was there, but then again he was not up for any troublesome trouble that, with some caution, could be avoided. After all, moving silently enough not to wake humans was not really much of a challenge to a hundreds upon hundreds of years old demon.

Without trouble or disastrous consequences he had managed just fine to wring out his clothes in the bathroom, and hung them from various free spots in the guestroom to dry. -Though the cup of tea Kurama had made and left for him the next morning had been more than unnecessary.

Nevertheless, he still drank it.

It smelled sweet. Sweet, blended with a strange feeling of nostalgia. He took a sip, staring out at a gray weather hanging heavily outside the window. It was the same tea Fai usually preferred when she was here.

He sighed, without really meaning to.

The heavy breath of air swirled the calm steam from the tea everywhere, making it vanish for a few moments before it slowly raised toward the roof again, in that same endless, calm manner.

It took him all day to finish off the hot drink; that somewhere along the way of course turned cold. And when a car pulled up outside and the unmistakable redhead came walking minutes later, there were still some remaining drops at the bottom, swirling slowly as the demon's hand moved ever so slightly.

He drew himself away from the window and decided to slump back onto the bed, as there, after all, really was nothing better for him to do right now.

He listened as more humans arrived and from the scents arising from downstairs he guessed dinner was being prepared, and the better part of half an hour later he heard the chatter indicating they were all gathered around the small, wooden kitchen table.

Hiei turned onto his side from having stared at the roof the last hour.

The sword lay next to him, half hid underneath the soft covers. He sighed, almost soundlessly and in spite of himself. He had begun sighing a lot more after she entered their group. Looking at the dimly glinting metal he frowned. She was nothing but a bunch of trouble and source of boundless annoyance. Honestly.

* * *

There was no watch in the guest room, so the little fire demon could only guess it had passed another five more hours before a red haired figure entered the room quietly.

He walked the entire distance between the door and the window without saying anything. Once there, he looked out, seeming as if he was looking for something for a moment, but Hiei knew he was only looking at the clouds for next day's weather, so he didn't bother turning around or getting up.

Finally the red haired one inhaled with that distinct sound that always comes when someone after a longer or shorter period of quiet decides to share what they have on their minds.

"Are you hungry?"

Hiei jerked and the exhale of a brief, breathed chuckle sounded from the window.

"Not what you expected?"

Hiei did not reply, though the fox knew he had hit right. But he spoke nothing of it. He knew Hiei had grown tired and weary to the point of anger from all the questions of how he was doing and how Fai was doing and if there were any new signs or not. Not that so many dared to actually ask how _he _was doing, but the air was always there, the question at the tip of everyone's tongue as they exchanged rapid, unsure glances, and in those eyes that would linger on him when they thought he did not see. However, -and this even surprised Kurama himself a little- the fire demon had kept from giving his anger an outlet and getting all up in a fit regarding this matter.

"You have stayed in here the whole day, have you not? A mere cup of tea can't possibly have been a satisfying meal. I can bring something up for you if you like?"

Hiei sat up, peering over at the fox and Kurama smiled back at him. "I will take that as a yes then," he said and added an "anything else you would like?" before closing the door behind him –when not receiving any reply to the latter.

It took Kurama only ten minutes down in the kitchen before he returned to Hiei with a decent amount of food to satisfy any hunger the fire demon refused to mention. Then it took another short hour until the house had fallen completely still.

Hiei was staring up at the roof again. Outside light rain drops hit against the window, though the demon knew they would cease in a twenty minutes time. The air and the sounds told his senses so. Had humans only had the senses of a demon they would never again need to listen to the words of a meteorologist -and even they were not right all the time.

* * *

_|Fai.| _

* * *

It was warmed than I remembered. The world. Or maybe had winter just come that much closer to summer while I had been gone.

My eyes fluttered opened, gradually stirring to life as it felt like my body opened up to all the impressions of the wake universe. A moment I thought I had forgotten how it was done.

My eyes, tucked safely in the dark for so long, felt sore to the light slipping through the lids as I slowly regained knowledge of how to part them. But when they were finally open it took me longer than I remembered it should take to make sense of what I saw around me, and to distinguish light from shadow.

Everything was nothing but a blur and a mix of things I did not understand. It must have taken minutes, a whole hour maybe, before my surroundings stood clear to my eyes. But when they finally did, I could not recognise where I was, and I wondered in silence if this was my room.

For a while I simply sat there, all the while blinking gently every other second in a weak attempt to soften the light burning an aching through my eyes into my head and settling there.

But it was dark out. Was that night perhaps?

I recognised a window. I recognised what it was and that the light searing open wounds in my mind came from the street lamps out there. Streetlamps. I knew what they were too.

Two crimson red eyes were looking at me. From my left. They did not stare, just observed. Somewhere inside I knew he had been asleep half a minute earlier. I sensed it while not in human form, if you will. He could not have slept very deeply.

_Took you long enough._

I jerked a little. The simple movement sent a dull ache through my muscles. But he had not spoken the words. His mouth had not moved the slightest. Nor had he thought it. It had just been the feeling of the words. It was the feeling of that thought, shared in a connection I had not noticed had been maintained.

My lips parted.

_How long…?_ But no sound came from them. Instead a sting rushed through my dry mouth, my tongue and down the muscles of my throat. Not pain exactly. But not comfortable either.

"Don't bother. After three weeks it would be a wonder if your muscles worked as they used to. You should sleep."

He had sat up while saying this, and while I perhaps normally would have been surprised at him apparently actually sleeping indoors and on this thing, that was nothing but the feeling of a faint memory. Like a dull tug at my arm that this was how I should have reacted, how I would have reacted. The me from three weeks ago. But thinking back now, that me was as distant and unknown to me as the millions of lights glinting in the black night sky.

Three weeks.

Shrouded by a hazy mist the memories of that distant life lay at the outer border of my consciousness, right out of reach to closer observe who I was. Or am. Or am supposed to be.

All the while those eyes watched me. And when I felt a movement in the soft things surrounding me, hugging me, I turned to look at him again. He had left the soft surface, the name for it I could not recall, and was straightening out the layers covering it.

The he looked at me. Long. He was thinking it over. Though I suppose reflecting upon whether to do one thing or the other is quite a waste when the opposite person was as good as a part of your own mind.

He came around the bed. Then he helped me lie down and tucked the soft layers around me. All the while I watched him, no real feelings or expressions surfacing in me. Only faint echoes, whispers, of what I think I would have felt, once upon a time.

"Sleep," his gruff voice ordered me softly, emphasized by his thoughts.

Was I supposed to feel surprised at this? At the tone in his voice?

He frowned.

The demon frowned as the girl lay indifferent on the bed in front of him. The girl who was empty and neutral regardless what happened around her. He bent down, slowly, leaning his forehead to hers.

_|Sleep,|_ he demanded again.

And it was not hard. To make her drift into sleep, that is. With the state she was in she did not have much will for herself at all. Then, as her main conscience faded he gently fed her impressions, conversations, memories. Small things from life, the ordinary things. But he was careful so it would not be too much. There would not be much required to send her frail mind back to the depths of the bottomless black.

Lost in the contact linking their minds and the memories flowing between them, one hand slid up along the girl's neck to rest at her chin. Fingers distantly brushed stray hairs from her face, soothed across the skin gently as fingertips tangled with her hair.

"And I suppose you intend to keep insisting this girl means nothing to you?"

Hiei spun around. He had already been about to gently end the flow between them, though now this was cut short and all his attention was abruptly flung toward the other end of the room.

Kurama smiled as he stood casually leaned in the doorframe, his arms loosely crossed. The crimson eyes glaring at him did not make him flinch by the least. Instead he unwound his arms and pushed off the frame with a sigh. "I had hoped this would not happen," he admitted, letting his gaze slide along the sleeping form under the covers. "But it is no surprise either. She has been bound in darkness without any form of impressions reaching through to her for three whole weeks. It's a wonder she is even this much aware of who she is."

"That only goes to prove-" Hiei started, but was sharply cut off by the redhead:

"Goes to prove what? That she was never strong enough to join us?"

The fire demon glared again, but said nothing as he passed the fox to head for the stairs. As he had already motioned to leave the room but without any particular goal in mind, he had nothing better to do than go see what these humans kept in their kitchen and whether or not it was edible.

Kurama watched Hiei leave, hands in pockets, dressed in Kurama's own trousers and a t-shirt several sizes too big. The fox smiled a little at this. Even though it had been one of his older ones, it still did not fit his tiny friend. Then his face fell silent again and he let his voice reach through the air once more before retreating to his bedroom for sleep:

"Or that we should have taken better care of her?"

Down in the kitchen the demon went through all the cupboards and the refrigerator just to close them all again and return upstairs without a word. And without a word he entered the guest room and closed the door behind him. Without a word he crossed the few feet separating him and the bed, looking at the creature sleeping there.

She had not moved. Not an inch. Had he not heard her quiet breath she could have been mistaken for dead.

The fire demon reached out a hand, fingers gently touching the girl's forehead, brushing along the soft line of it, before resting against the smooth skin. He frowned. Her body was still not producing the proper warmth for a human being.

She didn't look like she was dreaming. Her form simply lay there on her back on the bed which was only slightly wider than a regular single bed. Her long, brown hair lay draped across the pillow, like wild rambler plants. But that was also the only aspect by her form that could hint to the spirited and eager person she once was. The rest of her was calm, borderline to emotionless. The fingers slipped from her forehead and the demon retreated slowly to the window sill.

That night he did not sleep.

* * *

There was a racket by the door. The demon's head snapped in that direction. Kurama had left one and a half hour ago, so this could only mean trouble.

In the time it takes to turn a handle the fire demon had jumped off the sill, grabbed the still sleeping girl and in a moment of extraordinary insight, slipped under the bed. Which was, for the record a rather narrow place for two people to stay hidden. And that meaning narrow both in space between floor and bed-bottom and the width of the bed in question. However, in said moment of insight he had realised that if Kurama was not at home, that meant one of his family members wanted to come in, and as they knew nothing of the current people occupying the room, it could only mean they needed something from this particular part of the house. Conclusion: To hide in the closet at the other side of the bed which could provide them with better space, would only endanger their chances of being found as humans normally stored things in exactly that; inside closets.

And he had been right. Had the –who in the demon's eyes would have the word "idiot" in front of it- detective been there, or any member of their little group really, he –or they- would have been thoroughly surprised with the hot-blooded, stubborn demon's sudden wit.

Though this did not pass Hiei's mind as he watched feet dressed in neat, light green socks, pass by their little hiding place, heading for the closet. While this happened and he listened to the soft sound of female feet against the wooden floor, the female pressed close to him due to their lack of more space was coming to.

Hiei moved his right hand to rest it behind her head to prevent her from making any unnecessarily bothersome sounds by hitting the wooden bottom of the bed located less than half an inch from her, and the left hand he pressed against her mouth. And all the while he glared warningly, his mind only adding to it.

She looked fairly confused, and Hiei was in one minute afraid she would try to break free or make a sound in her throat at being awoken like this, then again, considering the state she had been in when she was awake last time, he was not really sure what she would do.

The female, whom Hiei figured to be Kurama's human mother, appeared to have all the time in the world. At least she did not exactly hurry while rummaging around and taking out and putting back in what the demon from the sounds guessed to be different kinds of fabric sewn to fit different areas of use.

Fai shifted ever so slightly in his grip and he watched with slight horror as her eyes widened and her back arched as all her muscles suddenly tensed up.

He put more pressure on her mouth. But this did not keep her mind quiet and quarter of a second later her thoughts burned into him like hot iron into wood. And that only goes to express some of the mixed feelings rushing loudly through her. On the bright side though, she wasn't as much of a living dead as the last time she had awakened.

It was a miracle they were not discovered and that Kurama's mother could leave as peacefully as she entered. Though the time before she did, had felt like eleven life-times to the demon in hiding.

As her steps faded Fai pushed herself up on her hands, but could regrettably not obtain more than half an inch of space between her and the demon underneath her.

Exactly, _underneath_ her. That's the keyword right there. And here comes the second: She was naked.

* * *

**(an: It's been _ages_ since I last updated, the former chapter beeing the first after I don't know how many months, and so I would like to dedicate this capter to "Crazy anime chick since 1993" who was so kind as to review the last chapter. I know I didn't reply to your review, but I hope this makes up for it -at least a little. ^^' Thank you so much.)**


	12. Chapter 12

"At least she reacted this time, that's a positive change. And that is more than she did when she woke up the first time."

Hiei gave a mere half grunt in the reply and the redhead shook his red haired head slowly.

"Honestly, I must say I am quite relieved. When she did not react by the least to being in that state of undress the first time I was really worried-" Kurama stopped himself, looked at the girl in the couch wearing another pair of his older clothes than the fire demon already wore, and slowly corrected himself: "-frightened. There is no saying what that kind of state in three weeks can do with a human mind. –And a demon's too, truth be told."

Hiei's left eyebrow twitched ever so slightly at Kurama's change of word. "Are you sure you are not the one with most care for her?"

"Oh, what is this? Is it the first hint of admittance that I hear?" and the fox' eyes glinted. Not in a mean way, just teasing, but still with that gentle touch they always seemed to have. Hiei glared briefly in the green-eyed's direction, but then turned to look at the girl occupying the couch with a book in her hands, again.

* * *

"Should we add that she was raped?" Yusuke tipped his head from one side to the other, thoughtfully crushing a potato chip with his front teeth.

"Yusuke," Kurama said with that faltering, oddly twitching 'that's-going-too-far' voice of his. "We do not want to terror her parents more than necessary. They have already been separated from her for so long."

Yusuke shrugged. "Just a suggestion," then a sly grin slid into the corners of his mouth, to then take full possession of it. "Then how about they planned to sell her as a slave?"

"And they had been following her for days already?" Kuwabara suggested. Yusuke sat more upright with a jerk. "And they had body visited her to make sure she was good merchandise, so she has been sitting naked most of the time in a cold store room."

"With blind folds," Kuwabara pitched in. The detective nodded.

"And there are two corrupt policemen who were in on it, who were the ones to help cover up their traces."

"And one of her school teachers."

"But she is too traumatized to remember which."

"Should we cover her in blood before delivering her to the police?"

"How about she-"

"_Kuwabara. Yusuke._"

The two boys clamped their mouth shut. Kurama kept his eyes on them for a few seconds to make sure his warning had been taken properly in heed, then sighed and shook his head. "However much you may find making up stories entertaining, we will stay with the first version."

"Aw, you're no fun Kurama," Yusuke sulked with a pouting lip, but at another reprimanding glance from the redhead a wry grin popped up on the detectives face.

"Well then, do you have any trouble with it so far?" Kurama looked at me. This whole conversation and planning and discussion had lasted for the better part of an hour, all possible flaws or blank spots filled in and fool proofed several times. There were no holes in the cover-up story anymore. And most of the work was Kurama's doing. No great surprise there, really. And not once had I spoken my opinion. It didn't seem like that came as a surprise either.

I shook my head and then shrugged. "It sounds okay," I said.

It was rather simple. They would place me in one of the deserted store houses at the outskirts of the city, call the police and then those people in uniforms would come get me and I would be reunited with my parents. If the police asked, then all I had understood was that they had planned to cut me up, ship my parts out of the country and then sell my organs.

I had gotten up and walked over to the exit door. It was then that Kuwabara pointed out my clothes –Kurama's old ones- looked rather new in comparison to what I was supposed to have gone through according to our story. After that Yusuke had fetched a kitchen knife and Kurama asked if I was okay with it. I shrugged again, and Yusuke cut my clothes to mere shreds. Even if Kurama's mother were to see me she would not have recognized her son's clothes. And that, Yusuke had remarked, should speak enough for itself of how they looked.

So that's where I am. Sitting on a cold, hard and rough concrete floor, hands tied behind my back and blindfolded. It was a little colder than I had expected. Even though I was indoors, there was no real difference on the inside or outside of this building, and cool breezes brushed against me every now and then and right through my sad excuse for clothes.

But it did not really bother me.

Kurama was the one who had placed me here. He had asked many times over if I was comfortable, and I had replied with a lopsided smile that that was sort of a rhetorical question regarding the substance I was sitting on and the condition of my clothes. However as this appeared to make a worried frown grow between his brows, I hurriedly added that I did not mind and that it would only be for a short period of time after all.

He was back home now, probably welcoming home his family. Family. My mother's eyes were brown. Kuwabara was the one who had called the police, they would probably come soon. Or were my mother's eyes green?

Hiei was about five hundred yards away. Take or give a few yards of course.

It was all a matter of "of course", the evening's earlier events as well. Of course that foul mouthed, hot blooded fire demon had had nothing to do with it. –I mean, come on.

And of course it was understandable that I would forget about such a thing when transforming back after such a long amount of time. But that did not ease the embarrassment by the least.

_The space between the floor and the bed bottom was regrettably narrow. I could not obtain more than half an inch between the fire demon and me. To be found in this position would be bad. Very bad. And we were not in my home –something which did not make much of a difference, as being found like this would be really rather _bad_ no matter who were to find us. So regardless of how much I wanted to scream at him, I kept quiet and had to make do with glaring at him and shooting as many searing thoughts into his annoying brain as possible. However, when whoever was in the room had left, nothing kept me from trying to push myself as far away from him as possible. _

_**would you quiet down, idiot? We will never get out if you keep on squirming like that.|**_

_I did not want to quit. Nevertheless, there was a regrettable truth in what he thought and I tried not to look at him as I let my body lower from pressing against the bed so we would be able to squeeze past the small brim at the edge. I tried not to look at him as my chest rested against his. I tried not to look at him as I felt his legs move as he slithered and wriggled us out from under the bed. Legs which had been intertwined with mine the entire time. _

_And I was naked. Let's review: Naked. Legs in-between each other. Naked. A male demon. It couldn't get much worse. _

_**|W**__**ould you see to quit that endless flow of thoughts?|**_

_Despite my best efforts of not looking at him, his thought made me stare briefly at him. My glance was returned and right then that little, stupid fire demon closed a part of his mind from me. _

_I was no longer sure what frustrated me the most; the naked part or the fact that Hiei just_ closed _part of his mind from me while I remained an open book. _

**_I can understand you don't like this either, but you don't have to go to such lengths to show it,_**_| I growled silently, and as soon as free space was once again obtained I practically dived back in bed and hid everything up to the bridge of my nose with the flower patterned cover, glaring at Hiei from across it. _

There were more than just the police and my parents who came to find me. As I was supported out of the building, faking a wobbling unsteadiness on my half, I was met by a blintz and a tape recorder stuck up in my face. Both police and my dad stepped in the way at the same time. And like this I was led to a car, protected by my father and the police, and all the while my shoulder was wet. My mother would not stop crying.

* * *

It was all over the newspaper the next day. Well, maybe not all over it, but half of it was covered by a picture of a weak looking girl, half hid behind one woman and two men's figures.

My dad put down the paper the very instant I sat foot in the kitchen, and the two grown-ups looked like they would tackle me to the ground if they could. But my mother kept it to a gentle brush of my cheek with a warm hand and a soft smile imprinted with the three weeks now put behind her little family.

The phone called, and my father was just cut off from giving me what I supposed would be a hug. Instead he sighed then groaned annoyed. "It must be those reporters again. Either it's the police, or some newspaper. They really never know when to stop."

I watched him as he left for the living room to find the phone and give the person on the other end a piece of his mind. Politely, of course.

The police had asked me some questions yesterday, and with the calculated voice fitting that of an exhausted and scared girl, I had told them in as few words as possible what I and Kurama had agreed on. But it was no surprise they wanted more information; it was understandable they wanted to catch these criminals to prevent them from ever doing this to anyone again. If only there were any criminals in the human aspect of the word for the police to catch.

As my father returned with an annoyed frown, I felt a little sorry for the clueless police only trying to do their job.

Another thing about all this was that I was staying home from school. And my parents were staying home from work as well. I don't know if they had been allowed to, seeing as I never asked. But I do not think they would have cared anyhow, whether or not their bosses would allow them to stay at home.

And so those three first days all three of us stayed at home. I think my parents tried to live like normal. At least they talked more or less like normal, laughed every once in a while and did not once even get in on the subject of where I had been, or what I had gone through. Neither did they ask the question "how are you feeling?" straight out.

When they were in a different room or not looking, I would walk around and look at all the small and bigger objects, decorations and furniture of our house. And sometimes, when touching or casting eyes upon something in particular, a new memory would pop up in my mind and be added to the puzzle of who I was. Were. …Had been.

Even though I did not say anything, I knew my mother would wake up many times each night to peek into my room. And when she quietly crossed my floor to gently kiss my cheek and stroke the hair from my face, I pretended to be asleep.

All the while, through these three days, the newspapers and police would not leave us alone. At the third day however, I finally put a gentle hand on my raging father's arm and shook my head with a gentle smile.

"It's okay," I said.

And following those two, simple words, both two police officers and two representatives of a newspaper came by our house that third day. Of course at different hours, otherwise there would be no telling how we would have survived a cross-interrogation that it would have most likely turned into.

On the fourth day my friends came by.

Not the demons and humans with weird powers that would freak out any news reporter on TV, but my other friends. My normal friends. From school. Maka, Sakura, and the others stood at our doorsteps, and the moment I turned the knob to open the door for them and they realised who it was, it only took one and a half second before I found myself in the middle of a big, mass-hug.

They stayed at my place for five hours. And during these hours Maka told me they would have come here the minute the news spread, but they had restrained themselves, understanding that my family most likely wanted to have me for themselves for a while first. And I smiled at them and thanked, as polite was.

However, as they stayed here I got to know something else. It was not something they told me, or showed me. But I re-experienced it, like was it for the first time: The stomach ache that follows with a hundred per cent heart felt laugh.

Perhaps I was out of practice. At least it hurt quite a lot. More than I could recall was normal. But it didn't bother me. Right then nothing could bother me.

* * *

"I'm glad to hear you're feeling better." Kurama smiled, taking a sip of his tea and shifting slightly for a more comfortable seating on the couch. My parents had retreated to the kitchen.

About fifteen minutes ago, a quarter of an hour, there had been a knock and a buzz at the door. Twenty minutes before that again, the phone had rung and it had been Kurama in the other end. It had been my father who had answered, and as the phone was in the living room where I had been seated, distantly flipping the pages of a book, I had had no trouble overhearing their conversation.

Kurama had been ever so polite and had made sure with my father many times again it would not be a bother to the family if he and some friends came to visit. He had made quite the convincing act of worry, and had really sounded like he hadn't seen me for three, -now almost four- weeks. Then there was the knock on the door twenty minutes later, where the four guys plus four girls met my gaze when I opened it. One day after my friends from school had been standing at the exact same spot.

So here we were. Drinking tea in the living room while the radio was distantly turned on and this day's edition of one of the city's newspaper lay folded on the coffee table.

Kurama looked at me thoughtfully. Then his eyes slowly shifted to rest on Hiei, who in turn shifted uneasily and gave a sort of annoyed, but questioning snort. Kurama continued to look, chin gracefully rested in hand. -Though the word "look" would barely do it justice. He more like examined us thoroughly with green x-rays.

Yusuke flicked a potato chip from a bowl my mother had offered us ten minutes earlier, up in the air and caught it with his teeth. That's what I would call skills. Or at least I would have before, when I still knew what it f- No, I really felt impressed now. And even though I did not notice it myself, a look of puzzlement and a strange, unsure joy crept across my face.

"_About time." _

"What is?" I spoke aloud, forgetting myself, and was thereby granted three pairs of tilted-headed glances.

"_You're starting to react like normal to what happens around you."_

Without thinking, a lopsided grin took control of my mouth. "What's that Hiei? You saying you're glad to have the old me back?" And the teasing sound in my voice was not to be mistaken. Hiei sent me a short glare followed by an 'hn'.

"That pa-"

"I kno-"

"So do somet-"

"Afraid I ca-"

"H-"

"You'll just have to live with it."

Kuwabara's eyes were round, and Yusuke was not far behind. Kurama on the other hand chuckled into his thumb, a look of great amusement on his face.

"You're freaking me out," Yusuke said, looking slowly from one of us to the other. I shrugged, grin widening.

"We can't help it. Thought travels faster than words, so by the time I've formed the first letters into proper sounds, the thought is already done."

"Then why do you even bother using words?" Kuwabara asked.

"Old habits die hard," I and Hiei said in unison. Now this even surprised me. For a split second we stared at each other, and even Hiei showed signs of surprised shock.

"Now _that_ was weird," I said. But Yusuke and Kuwabara however broke out laughing. They must have recovered from their "freaked-out" state quite fast, I noted dryly to myself.

"Old habits, huh?" Yusuke snickered. "Not a choice of words I'd imagine coming from you."

Hiei glared at him and I tilted my head. "I think that was me," I said. "It almost felt like I was talking through him. Like our minds were really-"

"And I think we'll stop there," the detective broke in, hands lifted to signalize a proper stop "there is too much to be confused about with these mental things, and if we dig more into it now, we will all just go crazy and end up at the psycho ward."

"If that happened, then who would beat the bad guys' ass and protect the good?" Kuwabara said, received a glance from Yusuke and exclaimed a "what? I'm just sayin'!"

"That was just too goofy. And if we really _did_ end up there, what walls do you think could hold us back anyway?" Yusuke continued before Kuwabara could come with some sort of goofily exclaimed agreement. "But putting that aside, I propose we make a toast. To Fai, who finally turned back to her old self."

"What?" Whatever expression was on my face right then vanished, and back was the blank, neutral face.

"Well, four days ago you would never have put up that grin you did, _three weeks_ and four days ago, it would not have been anything unusual," the detective explained with a wide smile and tea cup lifted.

Two other cups met his, and Kurama look the liberty of lifting Hiei's cup as well, so three cups would clink into Yusuke's.

"My old self?" I watched them smile at each other and drink the hot tea, Kuwabara wincing a little at the latter. He let his tongue hang out of his mouth with a grimace and Yusuke laughed at him. A small smile began forming on my lips. "I suppose," I said. Then the smile drained away again. "Then..." I said slowly, and the two goofs joking around with each other glanced over at me, at my voice hanging in the air. "Then how about the one I am now? Will I disappear and become someone else? Will my current conscience disappear?"

They fell quiet.

"No," Kurama said. "I understand your train of thoughts, but I don't think that is possible. Think of it as the same way as when you learn something. For instance, if you bike past a house every day on your way to school, then one day you learn the real history behind this house. Maybe a murder happened there. Now you will be different, and the bike ride to school will be a different experience than before, you will think a little differently, but you will still be you."

I looked at him. The fox with red hair and gentle, green eyes. But the sudden uneasy feeling did not leave.

"Think of when you were little," Keiko tried. "Then you might have yelled and refused to eat a certain type of food, even though you were a visitor in another person's home. However, now that you are grown, you would never have dreamed of behaving like that, even if you do not like the food. Regardless, you are still you, are you not?"

"I suppose," I said slowly.

Yusuke sent me a big grin. "Besides, if you changed and became someone else, don't you think we'd notice? And as far as I know, it's still Fai I'm talking to."

Yukina rested a hand on my arm, but it was Shizuru who spoke: "Don't worry so much kid. As long as you've got these dorks around" –and she pointed to the guys, whereas Kurama sighed for being labelled part of the "dorks" and Yusuke and Kuwabara blurted a simultaneous '_hey_'- "you'll be okay."

"And speaking of being here for people," Yusuke said when he had to accept it was impossible to get revenge on Shizuru, "you and Three-eyes have remained in that telepathic contact all this time right? How come? Normally you would take first chance possible to break it o-"

"_Look what I found_!" Botan fell onto Yusuke, squeezing him into the couch while waiving a square, flat box around. "Ludo," she beamed and thus proceeded to pour all the pieces and the dice and the extra dice on the table.

And so the following hours we spent playing Ludo. Playing on teams of two, Hiei watched without participating. He wanted to sit in a window, but I stopped him from carrying out that wish as we after all were in an ordinary house on the ground floor, and I did not want to attract unnecessary attention by having a guy with gravity defying black hair sit in the window sill, staring at by passers like he would jump through the glass and kill them. We did really not need that. So the poor fire demon had to make do with a seat on the couch.

When we started the third round, Shizuru had to leave. She said something about meeting a couple of friends, and a possible job she might want to accept. But then we were one participant down, and one of the four two-man teams would have to be a one-man team.

"How about you play with us?" Kurama tilted his head at Hiei. Hiei glared in the opposite direction. An obvious refusal. However the fox did not feel defeated. "Come now, just one round. We need another player. Or are you perhaps afraid of losing?"

Hiei tried to hide the twitch of the corner of his mouth which we saw all too clearly anyhow.

"Come on," I said suddenly, and without thinking twice, grabbed his arm. His head jerked around to stare at me. I returned it with a smile. "Come on," I repeated. "We two'll play together. Don't be such a wet towel." And we stared at each other, my eyes not faltering the least from his annoyed glare. As I continued to smile at him with dancing eyes I knew he was about to refuse again. But then- even to my surprise he sighed and nodded.

"Just one round," his gruff voice grumbled.

* * *

_It's because it's comfortable._

He was sleeping in my window again. I normally leave it open while in the bathroom, so that the air in my room is fresh when I go to sleep. Then I half close it and let it stay open like that for the rest of the night. And so, sometimes, when I return from the bathroom, or wake up in the middle of the night, I find Hiei sleeping there.

He's only been doing so for these last five nights since I returned, but I have already gotten used to it. How my mother never takes any notice of him though, is a mystery to me. But then again; he is a demon after all, so that much should only be expected of him.

I never ask him why, and every morning when I wake up he will be gone. But he knows I know he was there. And now he was here again, just like yesterday after the others had left after the visit.

I smiled and instead of heading straight for the bed like I used to, I sat down in the chair by my desk. Cupping my cheeks to rest my head in my hands I watched him. He really looked peaceful where he sat, neither inside nor outside of my room.

_We're a team, aren't we? _The dim light of the half-moon traced soft shadows across his face. _That's why you come every night to watch over me. That's why we continue keeping this connection. _I closed my eyes. _But it also feels comfortable, doesn't it? _A soft, cool breeze brushed along my cheek, and across my closed eyelids. _It just took us a while to realize. _

I pulled in a deep, slow breath and let myself fall deeper. _A team. _

Memories. Memories of different kinds. Both mine and his. They floated into each other, the border between them almost erased, blending together as a whole. Delightful memories, memories that would make me laugh, but also harsher ones.

Then there was suddenly one I had never seen before. He was sitting in the darkness of a movie theatre, a sword resting in his lap and against his shoulder. Funny. I could not remember him ever going to a movie theatre, or even wanting to. What little he remembered of the movie itself didn't seem so bad, it was a film I would have enjoyed watching. I followed the memory. It ended up outside a school. My school. Now this was really strange. Had he not made it perfectly clear before that he did not want to stay outside that building a single second longer than necessary? I could not remember a single day where he had waited for a long time for me to join him to wherever we had to go. I could not understand when this was supposed to be from. Had he spied on me?

Then I saw my friends. However, I was not among them. And slowly, slowly I understood what was going on.

This was the three weeks I had been transformed, when I had been gone. After first having thought so, it just appeared more and more to be the truth as I continued to watch closely. Watched as he for a change said yes to a cup of Kurama's tea, watched as he sat in the dark of a movie theatre, watched as he spent long hour after long hour, long day after long day outside my school. Watched him as he returned to my home, watching my parents sit there in the doorway, for hours later to go to bed. Watched as Hiei stayed outside their window until he was soaked to the bone.

All these things he had done. These things he normally never would have agreed to under any circumstances, he had done out of his own free will. All these things he had done, he had done in hope that some of it would somehow reach through to me and pull me back to the world.

Hiei.

I lost myself in the pictures and memories, and floated further and further away, until-

"_To grow stronger was your wish, was it not? When you stole the _Conjuring Blade _of The Three Dark Treasures from the underworld?" _

I jerked. Even though it was nothing but a memory, and therefore dim as all memories are, it still sent a chill through me.

"_And so if I did?" _

That was Hiei. But I could not see the person he was talking to as the fire demon was standing with his gaze resting out a window the entire time.

"_Therefore you should be able to understand that teaming up with her will not slow you down. Rather it will give you the power you desired, and that with interest." _

"_That so? And why should that change anything?" _

"_Because I know you are the type to stop at nothing to obtain what you want, and what you want is power." _

* * *

**(an: Awright, that was yet another chapter. Now be kind and good readers and review, okay? *****^^*)**


	13. Chapter 13

He was gone in the morning. It was always like that. But this time it felt different. I was all alone in my own head again. And sitting there on my bed, staring at the window I realised I had almost forgotten what it was like, to be the only one in my own mind. For anyone who has never shared their minds, they might never understand. But it could perhaps be compared to first travelling the world and then suddenly being confined to your own home and its four walls only.

I bit my lip. I had no right to complain now; after all, it was I who had broken it in the first place. The connection, that is. But how could I not?

He had been using me. Everything he had said and done, it had all been for the power the link between us could grant him. His memories had told me. One could not get a cleaner evidence or confession,

So why did I still feel so empty?

* * *

"I thought it would be too much on her to let her friends visit as soon as they did." The father's arm wrapped tighter around the female. "But it appears they did more than we could ever do. She's a lucky girl."

I had gone back to school. One week after the visit paid by the gang, I was walking on the pavement in the direction of my school. I knew my parents were worried. They thought it was too soon to return to school life; it had been easy to see it on their faces. However, I needed to get moving. To have something to do, something to occupy my mind with, so that I would not do any unnecessary thinking. So I told them I felt just fine and really missed going to school and meet my friends on a daily basis. Of course they let me go when I flashed them the widest grin I could muster without looking fake.

Other people with faces as open books, apart from my parents, were the hundreds of students in my school. The way they sort of quieted a little when they saw me, refrained from walking any closer but at the same time could not pull away, spoke louder than any words ever could. And who were to blame them? I had supposedly been kidnapped and mistreated for three weeks, thinking I would die. It was only a natural reaction on their part.

My friends, my normal, human friends, on the other hand had a much more composed posture. They had after all visited me, and that many times during my week at home too, so they knew what to expect. Regardless, they still seemed a little worried how school would affect me. Clearly, they too were of the opinion that only one and a half week was a little too short a period for the psychical healing required after what I supposedly had been put through.

I felt sorry for them as I watched them trying to mask their worry with ordinary everyday talk, it made me want to laugh a little at them. Not in a mean manner, but thankful and strangely adoring. Like the way one does if a child offers you their half-eaten ice cream after you lost yours own on the ground.

I guess some of the me after the weapon-transformation still remained within me. I still felt a little like I was on the outside of the situation, looking in.

"Did you see the new teacher?"

"Yeah, where on earth does he get his tie-fashion from?"

"I have no idea. Fai, we got this new math's teacher; he is the strangest thing I've ever seen."

See? Ordinary, everyday talk.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I jerked. Maka had put her hand on my shoulder, and now my little gang of friends had turned their faces toward me. They showed an expression in a mix of fright and honesty, as they cast the superficial act of worriless talk aside.

"Yeah," I flashed a smile. "I'm fine."

They didn't look exactly convinced, but didn't want to press the matter so they continued their discussion of the teacher instead. –This time however, a little slower and calmer than before.

* * *

After going through the entire school day, Yusuke and Kuwabara had come to pick me up. "The entire school day" mostly consisting of teachers going through about the same scale of expressions as the rest of the student body, -but perhaps a tiny bit more amplified as they were forced to face and converse with me if I raised my hand. They might be grown-ups, and educated teachers, but they had no experience in how to handle this kind of thing. Obviously the teacher's education had a serious glitch in their curriculum.

Yusuke and Kuwabara had been standing by the gate, causally leaning against it, sending a couple of suspiciously staring teachers a mean glare. I sighed. "Don't tell me, you ditched school just to come get me?"

"Nah, just the last period," Yusuke replied, stretching his arms behind his head. I could almost hear the crackling sound of his joints.

"No matter how touching that is, I doubt Keiko will be very pleased about that," I pointed out, and that started a long debate of whether or not to tell Keiko they had dropped school that lasted the entire way to Kurama's house.

I pushed down the handle to the front door. Yusuke commented on something Kuwabara had said and I laughed. I pushed the door open, lifted a foot to step from outside to inside, turned my head away from the two boys to see where I was walking and-

"So you're here too, after all," Yusuke grinned from behind me. "Hiei."

Hiei stood on the other side of the threshold. What he had been doing moments before, I don't know. But he was there, on the other side with the door opening separating us. My foot had stopped midways in the stride, less than an inch from the threshold. I could not put it down.

"Hey, something wrong?"

Next thing I knew, Yusuke had bumped me in the back and with my one foot placed as it was there was no surprise my balance was non-existent. I stumbled through the door opening, past Hiei and inside. Turning around and catching myself with a hand to the closest wall I laughed at Yusuke through a wide grin.

No, there was defiantly nothing wrong.

"There is one thing I have to ask," Kurama said as he followed Yusuke who had set a course for the kitchen the very second his shoes were off. Kurama's speed was a little faster than his ordinary. No wonder though, as whatever food the room held was doomed to last less than three minutes in Yusuke's _tender _hands.

"How come my home automatically seems to end up as the place for everyone to meet?" -Yusuke was rummaging through some cupboards at this point- "That I would very much like to know," Kurama sighed, as the detective he was talking to did not seem to pay him any attention.

Yusuke came back to the living room with a box full of cookies in his hands, to Kuwabara's great pleasure. And while opening said box and placing it on the table –a _slight_ bit closer to him than the rest of us, of course- he replied smoothly:

"Easy: Because your kitchen holds the most food."

"-And the best," Kuwabara added, cheeks swollen with cookies. Well, to be fair that is actually a tiny bit of over exaggeration, but its close enough.

The poor red-haired fox sighed, and I had a feeling he was considering getting rid of the cupboards' content right that moment and for the rest of eternity. I smiled lopsidedly at him, receiving a light chuckle in return twitching through the corners of his mouth.

Behind me Hiei sat in the window sill. I was very much aware and never once turned my head through the entire evening. He didn't try to come in contact with me either –neither verbally nor telepathically. There was not a single sound of movement from him when Yusuke asked how our connection was doing. He did not say anything when I laughed and lied to the detective. He did nothing but sitting there.

He didn't try to ask.

And I had my bottom lip pressed down upon by my teeth for the most part of that evening, until Yusuke and Kuwabara had finished the box of cookies, talked their hearts out and felt inclined to let the hospitable fox get his beauty sleep. As Yusuke said at the door; "And you obviously make great use of it. Too bad you're not a girl, or I'd've had you ages ago." And he stuck his tongue out and ran off before Kuwabara –and I- could slap him across the head on Kurama's behalf, as he himself just sighed and shook his head.

"Yusuke."

After this followed six more days -the weekend making out two of them- with doing homework at Maka's place in three of those days and dropping my Kurama's place in one. Hiei had not been there. Kurama said he probably had a lot of his own business to attend to as he hadn't been getting much to doing that the past weeks. And it was not like it was much of a surprise, as Hiei would always wander off on his own if we did not need him for anything in particular. But knowing this did not keep me from being overly self-conscious the remains of that day. Yet at the same time, I knew deep down I was bitterly relieved.

Human nature can be a bitch.

* * *

It was Monday. Statistics say there are more people who die of heart attacks on Mondays compared to the other days of the week. I think any student understands why.

I was in the north-west wing, the part of the building containing the rarer classrooms of the school. And now I met even fewer people here than I usually would, as most of the student body was outside enjoying the sun-filled early –very early- Easter weather. My friends were also out there somewhere. I had told them I would be okay on my own and was therefore here alone, as my locker happened to be located here in the more seldom used part of the school.

It would only be down here, around the second corner and then-

My head was almost dislocated as I was yanked roughly to the side. My vision spun a short second as I lost my balance, stumbled, only faintly noticed the hand around my wrist, and then felt the wall against my back.

In front of me, with crimson eyes locked with mine, stood Hiei. I stared blankly back at him. My mouth fell open. It was too much of a surprise.

"Why… are you _in_ my school?" Outside was one thing, but inside?

"There was no other place to get a hold of you, as you have been doing quite the good job of avoiding me."

I didn't like how right he was. I had somewhere along the way managed to trick myself into believing it had just been because I did not have any errands at those particular areas, but in truth I had thoroughly avoided any spot in the city where I knew there was a possibility of bumping into Hiei.

I couldn't help a soft snort.

"Appears the roles have been reversed, huh? This time it's me being the anti-social freak and you doing the seeking-out. Who would have thought?" Though it had been nothing more than bitter words mumbled sarcastically to myself, he still heard it. And I supposed somewhere in the back of my mind that had been my real intention.

"I have tried to be patient with you."

Then, before I could properly catch up with what was going on, both my wrists had been caught in strong hands and forced against the wall. My eyes widened only to clench shut as I winced in spite of myself as I was forced against the brick surface. A faint moment I thought I could feel breath tickle against the nape of my ne-

There was a sound to my right. My eyes shot open, I jerked in that direction. Around the corner came four students. Glancing to the side with my heart skipping a nauseating beat, but nothing but the opposite wall met my eyes.

Hiei was gone.

"Hey, are you okay? You look a little bleak."

It was one of the students. They must've been second or third years. It wasn't easy to tell. After all my school consisted of about one thousand students, so one can't really expect to recognise every single one. The one who had spoken looked to have short hair, as it was mostly hidden beneath a cap. But it was clearly a girl.

"I'm fine," I said and faked a smile.

"You sure?" Half her face was in the shade of the cap's brim.

I nodded and the four glanced at each other, smiled at me and walked past me to attend to each their locker. First now did I see where I had been pulled off to: I was in one of the dead-end hallways, crammed with locker-rooms and only three doors leading into three different classrooms.

I didn't notice that the capped student had asked the others to go on without her before she was standing in front of me, eyeing me up and down. "If you want to talk, I don't mind," she said with a smile. This made me laugh a little.

"I'm really okay. Don't worry," I said.

"No, I defiantly think we should talk." And puzzled I did nothing to protest as she took my hand and pulled me into one of the earlier mentioned classrooms.

"He was just here, wasn't he? -Oh, what was his name again…

…Hiei?"

"Wha-?"

I stared. Her back was toward me, her facing the windows closing out the sounds of the outside world. I couldn't move. She flipped the cap off her head. Long, purple hair flowed down her shoulders.

"You two really don't seem to get along very well, now do you?"

There had to be some kind of mistake. The temperature of my body must have dropped drastically. I couldn't even feel my fingers.

"Do correct me if I'm wrong."

And she turned; her lips curving a smile with the head titled at her last words. Waiting. But I didn't say anything. Her rich brown eyes bore into me, sending shivers down my back, having my every hear on an end.

"But I have to admit you have an interesting set of powers. And it's not like you have anyone to wield you right now, do you? How about just giving them to me? It will rid you of quite a lot of problems, don't you think?"

Almost unwillingly, but unable to stop it, I thought of the fire demon. On my wrists bruises were starting to show in dull blue. A sudden feeling of rebellious carelessness cradled my mind; my hand was already half lifted toward her before I realised it myself. I opened my mouth-

But what I was planning to say I never got to know, for at that moment a sharp, shattering sound made me jerk and on a blanket of scattered glass Yusuke landed. And I found myself dumbly staring with wide open eyes and a jaw no longer attached to the rest of my face.

"Geh." Was all I could say: You just don't get much more action movie-like than that. Yusuke dusted off glass from his green uniform. How he himself, in resemblance to all other action heroes, looked completely unscathed would remain a mystery.

"Not the most elegant entrance ever made, but sure packs a cool impact," the detective in question grinned and stuffed his hands in his pockets. But then his face fell serious. "I don't know exactly what's going on, but whatever she told you; don't listen to her. She is one of the bad guys who appeared to have faked as a grim reaper apprentice for inside information." He sighed and tapped the toe of one shoe to the ground as if to fit it better on the foot. "Just heard from Koenma."

And behind him Kurama came elegantly through the window, offering up a greeting smile when he saw me, Kuwabara following not fully as easily behind.

"I'm sorry we had to barge in on your school day like this Fai, however when we heard from Koenma she was and have been attending your school for quite some time, we saw it necessarily to inform you right away." He looked from me to the 'grim reaper' with calm, green eyes. He seemed completely unaffected by the whole scene and said with an easy voice: "And it appears we arrived just in the nick of time."

Yusuke stared at the purple haired girl whose eyes narrowed as she returned his gaze. "What are you doing here?" the spirit detective demanded in a casual sounding voice, just barely letting the threat slip through. She titled her head, chin up and a smirk tugging at her mouth.

"It sounds like your boss is pretty up to date these days; don't tell me you didn't hear from him? I suppose he's not so great after all, huh?"

Yusuke glared. Yet even so, he still remained calm. Standing in a causal pose with hands resting in pockets, the glare was only to detect as a cold shimmer deep in his eyes. And as I watched I knew these were the moments that proved why Yusuke was the leader of Koenma's elite group.

Suddenly the tense air fell. The girl laughed light heartedly. "There is no reason to create a scene here. The window you broke will already cause the school more troubled heads than necessary," and she nodded to the glass covering desks and floor around the three boys. She turned and motioned to leave the room.

Passing by me she patted my shoulder softly. "Fai here is quite the kind-hearted girl, wouldn't you say?" And she closed the door behind her.

A folded, yellow post-it note fell to the floor next to me. On it stood simple words written in black ink that made the blood boil through my veins.

* * *

Yusuke himself explained his actions to me later with a grin, that he had always wanted to come barging in through a window, and that what better window to choose than one of a school where he wouldn't have to pay for it (though I also had a feeling he chose a school in general, because of his fundamental distaste of them). Needless to say, the broken window caused quite the commotion and gave birth to more than one rumour –seeing as Yusuke and the others of course didn't get caught. Regardless, no one seemed to speak many words of it as something else had happened simultaneously and of a much graver character:

Maka was missing.

The broken window and her disappearance were, of course, immediately linked together by the teachers, but other than that there were no clues. Then again, she could just be out on a walk to clear her head, -'had she for instance gotten back a test with bad results or something of like?' was one of the explanations the teachers offered each other. But by the end of the day, with no one being able to get in touch with the missing girl, none of them were really put at easy with that.

And less than anyone, her parents.

I could see them by the gate. It was swarming with teachers about them and two police officers. At the first glance I caught of the pair I looked to the ground. It was not my fault. Of course no one was going to say it was my fault. Yet I did not want to risk meeting their eyes. Koenma had contacted us only an hour prior and that I already knew the object of our new mission had surprised him. But he did not have many details to come with yet to lift the grim expression that had grown on my face. All we knew was that demons were involved.

Moving past them with rapid steps I could hear the loud, high pitched voice of a furious, desperate woman. _"How could you," _I heard her scream.

I bit my lip.

"_How come our daughter was the only one missing? How come it took you so long to notice? How come the teachers did not noticed anything?" _ Out of the corner of my eyes I could see the male holding onto his wife's shoulders. But he was not holding her back.

_How could _I_ let this happen?_ My hands gathered in fists.

He was just as angry as her. His hands were trembling, clasping tightly onto her smaller frame.

I walked away with lowered head. They must have hurried from work. I broke out into a run.

All out if breath I reached the front door of my own home. My home. My front door. My parents were not home from work yet. I gasped for breath. My eyes stung from the long run. I fumbled for the key. Somehow it was difficult getting a proper hold of it and it jingled and rustled violently in my hand. Why did I-

-I was turned around, a hand on my shoulder. My heart skipped in the back of my throat, but it wasn't my parents.

My lips pressed together. I bit the inner side of my cheeks. I hit him. Fists against chest I gritted my teeth and hit him. "_It's all your fault!" _I slammed my fist against him again. I must have been in a seriously bad shape after three weeks as weapon, for my eyes continued to sting violently from the run. That had to be it.

Tears started rolling down my cheeks; I tried to force them back, but to no prevail. In the back of my mind I could hear my own mother's voice from a memory not belonging to me. She too had asked questions, she too had been furious; she too had had the dangerous quiver of a suppressed cry in the back of her throat, gathering into a thick lump. Now there was someone else, another mother who felt just like she had. And that just because I had failed to pay attention for a short moment of time. If only I had asked my friends to accompany me to the locker-rooms. If only I had decided to drop by my locker at another time. If only-

I pounded my fists into the black clothed chest. The owner grabbed my hands. Yet still I tried desperately to continue, incapable of anything else. "Calm down. Calm down, you little idiot."

"This is all your fault!"

My voice hiccupped; tears flowed into my open mouth. They tasted salt. My hands struggled in his. But my body trembled beyond control now, there was no strength left, and like that my knees gave in.

But I hardly even noticed.

He caught me, a release of my hand and then a quick arm around my waist kept me from hitting the ground hard. He slid slowly down with me. Then my other hand was also released and his free arm grabbed around me. Around my back and around my arms. It prevented me from even attempting hitting him any further as he held me so close, muscular arms keeping my body still against his, my chin resting powerlessly on his shoulder. My eyes stared forwards, not seeing anything but an endless white.

And I cried. Cried for Maka's parents, cried of bottomless anger at myself for allowing this to happen, cried for having being used all this time by him without knowing, cried for how I could let someone innocent get involved in this part of my life. And I cried in endless frustration for actually crying in the arms of this bastard demon who had done nothing all this time than use me for power.

* * *

**(an: Sorry it took so long. ^^; Hope you enjoyed it though. And if you did, don't hesitate to tell me! (aka, review :3 ) And if you didn't like it, then sitll don't hesitate to tell me. Thankies. :D )**


	14. Chapter 14

It would take too long to get the required information from Koenma. I had always had the impression he would just send the team off without hesitation, but first now did I realise all the work he did ahead of that, gathering information, numbers, statistics and what-not.

However, I could not shake the feeling of one minute to or fro could decide everything. I had no time to lose. So with a flashlight in my belt and a folding knife I knew wouldn't really make much of a difference against demons in my pocket, I left home.

The only thing I had to tell me where to go was the small, yellow post-it note, but it was more than enough. If anything it felt like my powers and energy was rushing at such a level that I at my current state would be able to find the false grim reaper by her energy or scent alone even if she hid had the other side of the world. Post-it note or no post-it note.

I ran. Glancing to the left and then right I saw no ordinary humans to witness anything bothersome and made a soundless jump onto the closest roof. Landing crouched down I sat like that for a split second, listening, sensing for anything out of the ordinary. Then I kicked off and raced across the dark roof, sprung through the air, and onto a new roof. Onwards and onwards, in the blink of an eye I had put a mile between me and my home. The dark of a moonless early spring night offered shelter for any eyes that would happen to glance outside from their bedroom or living room windows.

* * *

Truth be told I was not sure what I was expecting. But perhaps my subconscious had been going more in the direction of deep caves or the likes. At the very least I found myself quite surprised when I saw the goal of my yellow post-it note. It took me so by surprise I actually had to stop my hasty pace to simply stare confused, a short moment also wondering if perhaps I had come wrong.

-Though the demon energy almost visibly reeking off the place however was not to be mistaken. So I pulled in a deep breath, found the door unlocked and entered the dark mansion-sized house with blank polished windows and a dark, red colour.

"I see you came after all. You took so long I was starting to wonder if you had decided to save yourself and leave your little friend here instead. I trust you kept that note to yourself?"

I clenched my fists. "Where are you? Come out," I demanded, voice trembling with suppressed anger.

The voice laughed. "Now what is the fun in that? Your friend is in the fifth room to the left after the stairs. Come get her on your own, if you can."

"That is the most cliché thing I've heard so far," I muttered, but got nothing in reply from the girl whom I could not see but knew had purple hair and had presented herself as a grim reaper trainee once. Well, that means I got nothing in reply if the demons emerging from the very walls were to be ignored.

With gritted teeth I was armed with nothing but a simple folding knife. Regardless, these demons would be wise not to underestimate me. Kurama had not neglected anything in my training, something the twenty demons between me and the stairs soon realised. -I say twenty, though it would probably only be fair to call them ten proper demons in regard to their amount of power, and even that would still be overdoing the numbers a little.

I reached the staircase only to be harshly stopped by a kick to the stomach, sending me whirling down the three steps I had managed to climb and crashing into the marble floor of the entrance hall, just half landing on my feet.

Skidding backwards I saw three males stand where I had been half a second before in the stairs. Three. Lightly tilted heads, arrogant, amused and grinning, each expression belonging to each their demon, and definitely pushing my buttons with the way they watched as my skidding came to a stop and I tried to get back up.

But the kick had been more of an impact than what I had first thought and I my knees gave away under me as I coughed at the stinging pain. "Tch." My gaze flung upwards again, narrowed, glared at them. Screw the pain. Screw my shortage of proper weapons. Screw our unfair numbers. I charged right at them.

Forwards, sharply to the left, up at the outside of the rail, a jump, a twirl in the air, a brief cut along The Arrogant's cheek. Knife beat out of my hand, a sharp jump backwards, a cut across my right shoulder, a suppressed utter of pain, a growl, a twirl of clothes and winking metal, a short bark of a laugh. What was a battle of life and death would be nothing but mere shadows and blur to the ordinary human eye, perhaps even mistaken for bizarre ghost activities.

If I were to beat them I would need a miracle.

Yet, I was still making a slow but gradual progress toward the room said to contain my friend. Gradually moving so the three were no longer between me and my destination. Slowly, surely, but I needed something more.

"Why?"

I had hit the rail in a moment of misbalance, lost my pace entirely and clung to the wood gasping for breath. A drop of blood trickled down my forehead and into my eyes. I rubbed it away.

"Why?" I repeated. "What do I have that you want?" I needed any break possible. Talking was just one of many different ways of getting it. The Amused one thrust the tip of his sword into the carpeted staircase, leaning against it with a dull smile. "'Why?' you say? Why, merely for the joy of combating and killing strong opponents." He laughed at the expression which must have shown on my face just then. A short bark of a laugh. "It is quite the thrill finding stronger and stronger opponents, fighting them as you test yourself all the time."

They looked ready to continue where we had left off. I needed something more to talk about. And so the first thing that came to mind rolled off my tongue before I could give it a second thought: "Then your leader is quite the liar. She said she was interested in my powers."

It was The Grinning one's turn to laugh.

"Yeah, well. You don't see her around right now, do you? She is not big on killing. We'll kill you, and she will get your powers afterwards-" and as he said the following it looked like he was actually having a great time "-by eating you, that is. Heart, bones, everything." And he laughed again.

"I'm sorry if that doesn't sound very appealing to me," I noted dryly, pulling back ever so slightly to assemble my muscles for a thrust-attack.

"We didn't expect it to either. Strangely few who find it appealing to be eaten, innit?" the amused one said, and next thing I knew his sword was out of the stair and carpet and missed my head by the quarter of an inch. I could even see a couple strands of hair flail past my forehead and disappear out of sight in the air. _That was _too_ close. _

"I'm afraid I can't grant your dear chief that pleasure. I happen to have quite a lot of stuff I want to do, so if you'll excuse me." I had free passage to the room. The three demons were still in the staircase, I in the corridor.

"Oh, sweetie, you seem to have forgotten something very vital."

I froze. In more meanings that one; I felt cold all over, not moving an inch as something poked gently into my back.

It was her.

"Have you already forgotten? I was a trainee with the grim reapers."

"And so?" I managed to say, surprised at my own steady, hard voice.

"Oh, sweetheart. We don't have to worry about you protesting. You see, all I have to do is draw your soul out of your body and you'll be immobilized." Her voice was soft and sweet in my ear, to the point of being nauseating. She slowly turned me around with gentle hands. "Sure, it's against the law of the grim reapers, but as I am no longer a grim reaper and only was for a short period of time, that rule does not apply to me, now does it? Don't worry, it won't hurt."

I would have protested. I would have, if I had not already been at the outside of myself, looking at the situation from free air already while she was voicing the last words. Her eyes moved from my body to where I hovered, a smile spreading wide but eased on her lips.

"Please do the honours," she gestured toward my body collapsing without anyone to control the muscles holding it up. My eyes widened as I saw the three male demons close in me. –Or the body I was supposed to be in. The Arrogant one lifted his hand without a word.

"Hey… _Hey! What are you doing?_"

The next few seconds many different things happened at once.

I had plunged downwards, but being but a soul I flew right through his arm. There was a yell, a blur of movement and tumbling bodies, many loud sounds, the fake grim reaper tumbled back, and fingers were buried into a chest causing immediate death.

I stared. Stared at blood dripping to the ground, coughed up to colour lips red and then the collapsing body. But it was not my body. It was The Arrogant one's.

And between him and my limp heap of a materialistic vessel, stood Hiei. He grimaced and looked with distaste at his blood covered fingers. If I remembered correctly he wasn't a supporter of such barbaric techniques if they could be avoided. But he didn't have a sword with him so it had been the only option. Sword. He didn't have a sword. Because I was-

I looked at him more closely. He was out of breath. A demon of a high level such as himself was out of breath. How fast must he have run to have his chest heave for air like that? Then the fire demon looked up at me, where I soared in the air, baffled and speechless. His nose wrinkled.

"Hn," he snorted. "As reckless and useless as ever I see, you human fool."

"Wh-" I blinked confused, taken aback for a second. "Hey…" however his words didn't leave much space for bafflement and I was jerked out of the shock without difficulty. "Hey! We both know if you had been in my place the exact same thing would have happened to you," I pointed an accusing finger, heat building up in my cheeks.

"Not likely," he turned to the two remaining male demons. A smirk snuck onto his lips, widening by the second "I would have already killed them."

"Yeah, yeah, all high and mighty, aren't you?" -though I don't think he was really listening anymore; he was already engaged in a swirling battle.

"Tch."

I saw him be forced back against the wall. High class demon or not, those two remaining others were not to be underestimated either, and he was without weapon. His right fist clenched. His _right _fist, and my heart skipped a beat.

"No!" I gasped, diving through the air toward them: "Don't! Please, Maka could be hurt."

If he unleashed the dragon here, possibilities were the entire house would go down. And with me being in the state I was I had no chance of getting her out of here in time. Neither would Hiei as he would have to take care of my body. Or at least I hope he would have. I caught myself actually halting in the air at this thought. He would have rescued my body… wouldn't he? Geh…

I looked at Hiei. He was glaring at me, clearly not happy about being demanded to stop. _Geh_ –again. Those eyes, as long as he was in that mood I don't think he would think twice about leaving me.

Regardless, I pleaded again, calmer this time and with a hand reached out as if to ease a scared animal. "Don't. Please."

"Hn."

Hiei's hand fell. And I could do nothing but watch as he tried to fight his way through without a weapon, without using too much demon energy to keep the house from collapsing on us, leaving him with not many fighting-options.

But… _Why is he here? _I gritted my teeth watching, glancing toward where I knew Maka was –or where I had been told Maka was. This could all be a trap too. Still… _he must know I saw that memory. Is he just here to make sure my power isn't extinguished with my life? _I glanced toward the room again. Trying to think two things at once was starting to give me a headache. I looked back at Hiei.

_Nah, probably an order from Koenma. Though speaking of which, where're-_

"Really, he has no weapon and you are having that much of a trouble handling him?"

It was the fake grim reaper. –Never got to learn her name, now did we?

A too friendly looking smile spread on her lips and I felt my heart trying to strangle my lungs. "-Hiei! _Watch out_!" The demon's head snapped in the direction of the fake grim reaper at my words. I didn't know whether she needed to touch her victim or not, however judging by the smile she was displaying it didn't look like the distance was of any trouble to her.

"She's gonna try suck your so-" I was in the middle of fruitlessly trying to get back into my limp body when a new voice caught my attention.

"I apologise for the rough behaviour, but I simply cannot let you do that."

I had never in my life been so happy to see Kurama as I was just then. The fake grim reaper's lifted hand had been caught around the wrist by his whip, but instead of easily cutting it off, she was half a second later tangled up in plants released from the floor, with an extra thick wine around her head to cover her eyes. As me, Kurama probably didn't know exactly how the sucking-out-the-soul thing worked, so it was best to be on the safe side. However, the way he could arrive at a scene and at once understand who was the cause of what was truly amazing. –Unless he already knew of this soul-sucking-thing, which I didn't. But it didn't make much of a difference.

The demon fox had swiftly passed the wrapped up body and unleashed an attack at the closest demon who just barely dodged in time.

"Ku- Kurama, what are you doing here?"

The fox shot a glance at me across the shoulder, ducked away from a blade and smiled. "Koenma sent us after you and Hiei. Yusuke and Kuwabara will be here shortly. They were held up by a couple of demons who were not too helpful when we asked for directions."

"Oh."

I watched them for a couple more seconds in silence. Yes, they were doing better when two. As a matter of fact it was somehow mesmerizing watching them fight. Keeping track with their every move it suddenly became so clear that they really had known each other for quite a while, and were more than accustomed to each other's fighting patterns. And yes, with the fake grim reaper out of the way the threat had shrunk quite a bit. Regardless, they could have been doing better. No matter how good they were, Hiei was still missing a sword and they were fighting in a hallway so the amount of space was limited, the opposing demons were nothing to make fun of, _and_ they had to protect my body _and _make sure no one made any too brute attacks to keep the house intact. Just to keep track of all that is enough to give anyone a headache.

I bit my lip. "Hey, flower-power brainiac, it's about _now_ that your smarts are gonna kick in and find out how to get me back into my body," my voice sounded alarming, raising at the last words as one of the demons were dangerously close to having Hiei's head severed and ready to serve at a silver platter.

"I am working on it," he said. The way he could just take in everything of a situation without asking for details about what had happened _was_ truly amazing. "Hiei-" Kurama sliced the arm clean off The Grinning one. I clenched my fists in victory as the demon's screaming voice cut Kurama off. This was the first real damage they had managed to make. The grinning one –who was no longer grinning at the moment- staggered away a little to collect himself before attacking full force again for revenge. Kurama didn't allow him that pleasure though, and swiftly evaded the demon. "Hiei, I believe Yusuke told us about how he became a detective once during a game of cards a long time ago. Do you remember?"

"Why do you bring up the obnoxious detective?"

"I mean to recall he told us something about how they matching his soul and body back together-" Hiei looked like he would interrupt him, but Kurama continued: "-yes, she is not dead like he was, but it is worth a try."

I could see Hiei wrinkle is nose annoyed. "Hiei," Kurama urged. "We will not win like th-"

"_Kurama!"_

"Where are you going you fool?"

Hiei was by my body, glancing at my soul which was half way in the direction of Kurama. Kurama who was cut along the side of his face and down his chest.

"He'll manage," Hiei said shortly. And he was right. Kurama had kept himself from hitting the ground, and looked to have found his balance again. It was two against one. Red drops of blood gave the already dark carpet even darker stains. My fists balled up, teeth clenched. I was so useless like this. It was r-

A faint feel of pressure to my mouth. In the corner of my eye I saw the weirdest picture I would probably ever witness; Hiei sat on the floor, bent over my collapsed figure, one hand behind my head and lips- My eyes widened, but then I was jerked backwards: Sucked right back into my own body through my own stomach. For a moment my surroundings twirled, spun, and became hazy.

Then, next thing I knew, I was blinking with eyes that felt strangely heavy. The next thing I knew, I was staring straight up into crimson eyes. Next thing I knew, I had frozen stiff. And next thing I knew, Hiei was leaning back again, looked at me with a strange, critic, gaze. Then he got up with a "you plan on lying around all day?" remark. And so _the next thing I knew_, he had turned to face the other demons with one hand out to the side; he was waiting for me.

Though when he turned, had he-? No, I couldn't possibly have…

I got up slowly. My knees felt a little wobbly, but other than that I was ready to go.

…he couldn't possibly have been smirking, right?

Well, that put aside; time to forget all that had happened for now and co-operate with this annoying asshole, as it was, after all, the only hope I had to save Maka in one piece. Though, as I finally put eyes on the fighting scene again I found it was not as critical as I had thought: Yusuke and Kuwabara had entered the stage. And right now the detective briefly glanced at me and grinned widely.

"You sure choose your moments all right, Hiei."

"Yeah," Kuwabara snickered, was almost sliced in two which made his snicker vanish for about three seconds before returning, "Don't mind us, just keep going."

_What is-_ oh boy. I was confused at one moment, but at the twitch of Hiei's shoulder I wasn't left like that for long. Yusuke and Kuwabara must have come right in the middle of our kiss.

This was the second time I was kissed by that demon. _What on earth is the world coming to?_ And for a moment I was lost standing there staring. Confused again.

"What are you doing, you fool? Do you not plan to rescue your pathetic human friend? Transform."

"…E-?"

Hiei had grabbed my hand and jerked me a step forwards. I just barely managed to keep standing with my sorry excuse for knees. And as I glanced into his face again before collecting my thoughts on the transformation I could feel his hand so very clearly around my own, and with that arouse this oddest –not to mention stupidest- feeling in my cheeks.

_Oh boy. Not good. You've got to be kidding me. _

I transformed. Fast. Before Hiei could see the change in my face. This was really bad. Really, really bad. What on earth had inspired this sudden thing –reaction –feeling …thing?

"_Don't you dare read my thoughts, demon." _

Due to the transformation we were forced to once again combine our minds to make fighting even possible. That was a known thing, and no matter how little I like it, we really had no other choice.

"_Why would you thoughts be of any interest to me?" _

"_No one pisses me off as much as you do." _

"_Then we have more in common than I thought. Now shut it, you annoying human." _

Weren't we a loving team?

* * *

"She's okay."

It felt like all my muscles were melting away. The tension left my body and I suddenly felt extremely tired. But Maka was okay. She was a sleep for the time being. –Or passed out. Either way it didn't make much of a difference.

I pulled a hand through my hair. "I just hope she didn't see or hear anything unnecessary, otherwise we'll just have even more trouble." I flopped backwards from my crouched-down position after feeling her pulse and checking for wounds, to land on my bum, and sighed heavily. "I don't have any more energy for any more problems."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Yusuke said. He had just finished contacting Koenma through one of those fancy mirrors, reporting everything was okay, and leaned against the wall. He didn't look all 'full of energy'-like either.

"And you had to go and run off too, sheesh. Think about the troubles _you_ put _us _through. Koenma was about to choke on his pacifier."

I grinned sloppily. "I feel very, very guilty. Please forgive me."

"Hmm, I'll think about it." But my grin was returned by the tired detective and we turned then our attention back to Maka on the floor.

"Better get her home, huh?" Kuwabara mumbled.

"Yeah, but how?" Yusuke groaned. "We can't just drop her off after all the ruckus her school and parents caused. Anybody know of a free store house?"

"I am sure we can find one." Kurama smiled at Yusuke's words and was bending down to gently pick up the unconscious girl. "I, Yusuke and Kuwabara will take care of it. Hiei, could you take Fai home, please?"

"No, I'll come w-" I began but was cut short by a smiling, redhead:

"No, we will take care of it. You look ready to pass out any moment, so it's better if you just go home. And besides, we can't have your parents start worrying all over again, now can we? That would make all our efforts meaningless."

I had to admit defeat. If my parents accidentally woke up and found me gone, I'd be in trouble. So I sighed, nodded, threw a last glance at Maka to reassure myself she was okay and half-heartedly waved the three males off.

_And there they go._ I closed my eyes for a short second. _I'm all alone with fire-dude._

"Hn."

I opened one eye. Hiei had stuffed his hands in his pockets. He wasn't looking at me.

"Let's go," he said.

He was by the door now. It had stood open, so he didn't have to pull his hands out of his pockets to exit the room. If I stayed on the floor I wonder if he would just have left without looking back. He too didn't look like he had an over-load of energy left and probably wanted to find a nice tree to nestle in. A calm tree instead of my window. I bit my lip, and before I could think twice about it I had already said it:

"Why did you come?"

Hiei stopped.

"You know I saw that memory. You know I know why you paired up with me. This had nothing to do with you, it was my friend, yet you came. Why?"

His back was still towards me as his voice breached the cool air, low but steady: "Why do you think, foolish human girl?"

The muscles in my jaw tightened. "So you really did come just to make sure the power our connection produces wouldn't be taken away from you. I really am nothing but a sword to you, huh, _demon_?"

"Shouldn't you be getting home? Or else you'll have the police looking for you again."

He started to walk away. He was already half way through the door opening. He hadn't even _looked_ at me, and his voice had just been that steady, cold, rough voice that didn't even care what it was saying to me.

I was up off the floor and at the door in less than a blink. And in less than a blink I had a handful of his scarf in my fist, glring at him. Completely and utterly furious.

"You _used _me. _I actually trusted you, and you fucking used me, and all you have to say is 'shouldn't you be getting home?'? At least be a real demon and say it to my face, asshole!" _

His red eyes were so calm, so calm. Not that glaring gaze they used to be, not narrowed. Just calm, almost bored, looking at me.

"And what is it that you would want me to say?"

They describe it as to 'see red' in books when the main character gets really angry, and I could have sworn that right then and there a red shade was draped across my vision.

"'_What I want' you to say_? You _know_ what I saw; you _know_ memories can't be fake. Stop playing the fucking idiot."

And what did he do then? What did the God-damned demon do then?

He smirked. The demon in front of me fucking smirked. Arrogantly, looking down at me; nearly amused.

"This is why humans are stupid."

He had caught my fist before I noticed what I was doing. And before I could say anything in reaction, he had my hand twisted loose from his scarf and me pushed against the wall in the hallway.

"What do you think you saw?"

His voice was calm, despite his intensely staring eyes. Or maybe they just looked intense because of the colour. I'll admit I was a little thrown off either way. The sudden change of pace and positions had me all out of balance in my mind. Yet somehow I managed to activate my vocal chords and spoke slowly:

"What I saw? I saw you, talked into working with me with the promise of power."

"Hnh." His smirk was still there. "You really are a fool. Who was talking to me?"

"I… I don't know. I didn't see him."

After that he didn't say anything. Instead he just watched me. Watched me breathe slightly faster than what was normal, after the surprise of his sudden actions. In the back of my throat my heart pounded uncomfortably hard. And Hiei continued to look at me, almost thoughtful. –Though when was he known to think things over? This entire day was getting out of balance.

The smirk on his lips had slowly faded to a more neutral face. And it was about then that I felt it: A presence in my mind. I forced it back, though the intensity increased. Regardless of this, his efforts did not leak onto his face, even though I figured after a few quiet moments he had to be concentrating quite a lot.

But I suppose I was not one to talk. I didn't even have any left-over powers to even _think_ about my own facial expression. And as we stood there it was hard to believe I once had felt comfortable sharing minds, that I had let him willingly. That time felt faint and far away.

At some point my eyes had squeezed shut to keep up concentration, though I didn't notice until Hiei let up on some of his force and I had enough free attention to notice my own eyes. However even when I did, I continued to keep them shut, because even though he had eased up, his presence was still there, knocking on my door.

"Hn."

I still didn't open my eyes. His hand around my fist pushing the back of my hand against the wall tightened. Or maybe it loosened, I wasn't sure. I could feel his other hand at my elbow that he at some point had glued to the wall as well. What happened to getting home so my parents wouldn't wake half the city?

"Normally you would let me straight in."

"What are you talking ab-"

I could feel his breath brush across the skin on my neck. Slowly, from my ear to the nape, he was so close, less than half an inch from me.

"Hn."

His breath was hot against the nape of my neck. My eyes flung open as a tingling sensation chased up along my legs, through my stomach and all the way to the tips of my hair.

The wall around my mind broke, and like it came across an old radio I could hear him snort a pleased "humans" from far away. Then memories flashed before my eyes. Brief, blending with each other, mixing.

… _you okay? … why… are you in my scho-… tried to be patient… your fault… the joy of combat and killi-…he has no weapon… choose your-… __Oh boy, not good, you've got to be kidding me__. _

And abruptly it let me go. I could once again see what was in front of me, as I was gasping for breath even though I didn't know why. And though I did not notice myself, my body was shaking slightly. It had never been like this before, with such a knock-out clash. But now the connection had been broken again.

As I let my eyes fall gradually and tried to ease my breath, I caught Hiei's gaze. He had put some space between us so we could look into each other's faces, and first now did I come to think of the fact that he had seen the exact same things I had, felt the same things from the mess of fresh memories.

"You," he said slowly and it took a tremendous amount of willpower not to look away.

"What?" I grumbled, doing my best to stand still. It was nothing, right? He was an asshole demon and I was a normal human being; that was all. It was nothing more. He had just happened to let me cry on his shoulder once and taken care of me for three weeks. Compared to his normal, annoying behaviour, that just had me a little confused, nothing more.

"I see." And a smirk twisted the corners of his mouth in the most frustrating way.

Then he leaned closer, all the while keeping my eyes locked with his. If I could jerk back I would –miles and miles back, but the wall was blocking my path, and the hands around my fist and elbow didn't seem to be letting go any time soon.

Hot breath danced across my collar bone, made unwilling goosebumps rise. The tip of his nose slid along my skin, lips gently touching when reaching the nape of my neck, sending waves of tingling sensations through my body as he reached one very sensitive spot. My eyes squeezed shut. Though by now I was barely standing at my own two feet.

This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening.

I felt his teeth on my skin, and then the demon bit me, roughly yet gently at the same time. My mouth fell open, a whimper of a gasp slipped and I hazily cursed myself for it. I could feel the demon smirk against my skin.

His one hand released my elbow, and my arm fell limp to the side. The demon's hand began tugging at my jacket, pushing it upwards together with my sweater exposing my stomach to free air.

However, when I felt his fingers on my skin it was like someone snapped my mind back to the world of the awake and I started struggle against him. The cool night air pulling through the house and brushing along my belly pulled me out of the shock-like trance, and my free hand was up against his chest in a second, pushing him away from me.

"Stop it. What do you think you are doing?" I gasped, and from an unknown energy sourced I built up a hot glare sent in his direction, making him let of my other hand. "I hope you are aware I am still beyond angry with you, and whatever you're trying to pull off; it isn't funny."

But even though he had backed away a little, the hint of a smirk still lingered on his lips and the next he said had me a nano-inch away from punching him square in the face: "Though you seemed to enjoy it."

"_Shut it_. You haven't even answered my question."

Was is just me or did Hiei's smirk widen a little at this?

"Answered your question? I think I was the one to ask the last question though?"

I didn't reply at once to that, and when I then recalled he actually was right I had no reply to give. And needless to say; that did not really help my case. The fire demon sighed –or groaned- sliding his hands back into his pockets.

"The one you heard talking to me in that memory was Koenma."


End file.
